Book Review: Martyr!

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Poetry

Pages: 352

Format: ebook

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Some books have the power to grab your emotions, toss them around, and leave you in pieces, and Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar is undoubtedly one of them. This undeniably beautiful poetic novel isn’t just a read, it’s an experience that will definitely stay with me for a while. As I already devoured this book’s beauty and flaws, I was sure that Akbar’s words would haunt me for quite some time, especially that ending.

The book revolves around Cyrus, an Iranian-American raised in the US by his father. He has struggled with addiction and depression, and his despair made him obsessed with the idea of finding a purpose for his existence and giving his death meaning, of becoming an “Earth Martyr”. His path intersects with an artist, Orkideh, who is dying of cancer and has chosen to spend her final days in a museum for her show, Death-Speak. This tragic concept pulls Cyrus to New York to meet her, setting in motion a story of loss, identity, and martyrdom.

From the very first page, Akbar’s writing style amazed me. His prose is absolutely gorgeous and stunningly poetic. At times, I felt like I was reading pure poetry disguised as a novel. The way this book is written made me fall in love with Akbar’s words and inspired me enough to pick up my pen and write some poems. 

However, the eloquent writing wasn’t enough to save the book for me. While I was initially super sure Martyr! would be a 5-star masterpiece, the story of Orkideh was like a crack that began to show. It was full of nonsense and failed to hit the mark for me.

Despite Akbar’s gorgeous writing style, I found myself deeply frustrated with Orkideh. I found her to be very unlikeable. She was very selfish, leaving her son behind, and most importantly, she was a cheater. And I hate when authors romanticize cheating. No matter how beautifully written the book is, I can’t tolerate cheating. Call me old-fashioned or whatever, but I’m disappointed every time I read a romanticized portrayal of cheating. It doesn’t sit right with me, and no amount of literary beauty will change that.

Yet, Akbar’s really got me with that one fine twist. By the time I was thinking Orkideh was Leila, it turned out that Roya was Orkideh all the time. And this shook me. That woman didn’t have a mother bone in her body and it’s sad, yet cruel. I couldn’t wrap my head around the way she acted, and it left me feeling sorry for Cyrus. She literally abandoned her own baby just to run away with her lover and still managed to be so composed when her long-lost son sat down before her. And I assume she likely took the pills and killed herself just not to have more conversations with Cyrus. I don’t know, I just couldn’t sympathize with her. Leila wasn’t as cold as Roya and perhaps that’s why I thought Leila might have been Orkideh. 

Also, I was waiting for an explanation to why Roya’s brother Arash peed on her. I really wanted that explained, but I guess it’ll remain an unsolved mystery. My best guess on that it was Arash’s way of expressing his jealousy and punishing his sister for being braver than he ever could be. I think he wanted her to believe she was peeing the bed so she would go through self-doubt like him. But I still wonder why? I don't really understand how that fits with the rest of their story. Is that a symbolism I’m missing? Is it related to Cyrus's bed-wetting? I’ll probably never know.

Now, let’s talk about the ending. The ending had me sobbing for a moment and utterly confused the next. It turned surreal in a very vague way all of a sudden. Yeah, it’s eloquently written, and I enjoyed every single word that man wrote, but I still don’t get the ending. Was it all a hallucination? Was Cyrus dying? I didn’t know how to make out of it. So, I gotta say the vagueness left me a bit unsatisfied as I wanted more closure.

Still, despite my frustrations, I chose to interpret the ending through my hopeful lens cause I’m a sucker for happy endings. So, I’ll take this ending as Cyrus finds his happiness with Zee, which symbolizes the death of his past self. I believe his version of “martyrdom” shows in the act of finding meaning and love in his life with Zee.

To be honest, for a moment, I felt like Akbar didn’t know how to end the novel, so he just wrote an open ending to leave us confused. After all, I guess it worked and he got away with it, with this ambiguous ending leaving us readers scratching our heads and going bananas.

Otherwise, I loved the story of Cyrus and Zee, even though Cyrus was clearly too selfish and somewhat unkind to Zee. Zee is simply my favorite character in this book, he was definitely a giver, constantly forgiving Cyrus’s selfishness. I wish Zee had his own backstory or POV similar to Cyrus's parents.

Moreover, the way Akbar tackled the social and cultural identity theme was on point. With Cyrus, of Iranian origin, and Zee, of Egyptian heritage, I found myself nodding along with the portrayal of them as Middle Eastern in the US. 

The way Akbar explores the theme of otherness, aka “us vs. them” mentality, and the subtle racism is deeply poignant. And it makes you think that no matter how American they are, no matter how open they are or what they do, they are always seen as “other.” It’s sad when some people don’t see beyond the color of your skin and your cultural and religious background. So, the book did a brilliant job depicting this theme.

Overall, it’s a 4-star from me cause it was gorgeous enough to capture my heart regardless of the things I didn’t like. Martyr is definitely worth reading. For me, it was an incredibly heavy read, emotionally and mentally. Yet, it was undeniably beautiful with its delicate poetic language, and I would recommend it to anyone.