I had never heard of this book by Kaveh Akbar until one of my favorite podcasts decided to discuss it. Since I was unfamiliar with it, I was surprised to discover how hard it was to get this book from the library. I had to wait several weeks before the ebook became available.
Fortunately, it’s a short read, so it took me no time at all to finish.
It’s one of those books that took me a while to get into. I spent a big portion of the first part of the book thinking, “Huh? Why am I reading this?”
But once the main character decided to make a trip to New York City, I was fully onboard.
The book flips back and forth in time and between two main characters, so it’s hard to say what this book is really about.
I do think Martyr! is an appropriate title because the main character, Cyrus, is obsessed with becoming a martyr. That’s not to say he has any particular cause he’s willing to lay down his life for, which leads him to ponder what it means to be a martyr.
He’s a poet who has been in college for way too long thanks to a serious drug addiction derailing his ability to do anything other than get more drugs.
But by the time the book starts, he’s been sober for a couple of years, has resumed his studies, and has recently come up with the idea to write a book about martyrs. He’s a poet, so he wants each poem in his book to focus on a different martyr. He wants the last poem to be about himself, but of course that means he would have to write it before dying. And can you call yourself a martyr when you’re still alive?
He’s also hung up on the fact that he doesn’t really have a cause to die for. Dying seems to be his end goal, but to die for the sake of dying is just committing suicide. He knows that won’t be enough for him to qualify as a martyr.
Cyrus is Iranian American, and apparently the Iranians have a long history of being obsessed with death and martyrdom. Of course, Americans have their own relationship to Iranian martyrdom. Not only do we not appreciate it when it takes the form of terrorism on our own turf, but that has led to a whole lot of stereotypes of Iranians killing themselves (and as many Americans as they can) for a cause.
So Cyrus is an Iranian in America obsessed with dying for a cause. He knows exactly how that looks, and that also plays a role in his hesitance to write his book, or even to become a martyr.
For what it’s work, Akbar is also Iranian American, also struggled with addiction for a number of years before getting sober, and is obviously also a writer. Not to say the book is autobiographical, but I was listening to an interview with him in which he talked about the fact that he was surprised this book was even able to find a publisher, much less an audience, given the political environment we’re in right now.
The book goes back and forth in time and switches narrators because a defining event in Cyrus’s life happened when he was less than a year old. His mother boarded a flight to go visit some family members when her plane was shot out of the sky by a U.S. navy ship that claimed they mistook it for a fighter jet. Cyrus’s mom was one of more than 200 people, including women and children, who died on that plane.
The U.S. (of course) refused to take responsibility, and it should come as no surprise that I had no idea this was based on a real event. I considered looking it up while I was reading the book, but I got lazy and it wasn’t until I was listening to the interview with Akbar that I realized this really happened. Also based in truth is his depiction of the Iranian government using it as anti-American propaganda. It’s a lot like their 911, yet American history books always seem to conveniently leave it out.
And we wonder why they don’t like us?
But there’s a much longer history there I’m not going to get into. And the book doesn’t get into. As far as Cyrus is concerned, the only result of all that death is that his father decides to take his son to America to make a new life. They move when Cyrus is just a baby, so although he knows he was born in Iran, he has no memory of living anywhere other than America.
His father gets work at an industrial chicken farm, working his butt off 6 days a week, and spending the 7th day cooking a big pot of stew for him and his son to eat throughout the week. They get by, but it’s more of a living-for-the-sake-of-living type of existence. Neither of them seems to get any joy out of life. His father never seems to get over losing his wife, and although there doesn’t appear to be any hostility between them, father and son also don’t seem especially close.
His mission is to raise Cyrus to adulthood, and once he completes that mission, he dies. That’s not to say he committed suicide. He dies of a heart attack or something, but the implication is that he just gave up on trying to live when just getting by can be so hard and you don’t have anything to make it worthwhile.
The book grabbed my attention when Cyrus heads to New York City to meet a semi-famous artist who is dying of cancer. She has decided that her last work of art is to make herself at home in an NYC museum, and during the day, people can come and talk to her about death.
Since Cyrus is obsessed with death and wants to write this book (but hasn’t actually written any of it,) so his best friend pushes him to go. Of course there’s an unknown time limit to the “display,” and if he really wants to write about death, why wouldn’t he take this opportunity?
After the initial protestations and grumblings, Cyrus realizes his friend has a point, and they take off together.
By the way, his friend/roommate is hopelessly in love with him, and it’s unclear whether Cyrus is aware of that fact. They’ve slept together and they’ve dated other people, but he’s clearly waiting for Cyrus to wake up and realize they belong together, just like that Taylor Swift song.
So they head to New York City, and, yes, Cyrus has a few conversations about death with this artist who is also Iranian, so she recognizes at least some of the roots of his obsession with death and martyrdom.
I can’t say anything more without serious spoilers, so I’ll just say I really think you should give this book a chance. Just be sure to go in with an open mind.