My book club read this book on my suggestion after I attended Kaveh Akbar's author presentation at the Columbia Writers Series at Clark College in October of 2024. Watching Kaveh Akbar read and interact with the SRO audience felt to me like a master class in how to do an author presentation. I was impressed by the author's presence, attentiveness, and grace while answering questions and elaborating on his writing process. I had previously read some of his poetry; he previously published award-winning collections of poems titled Portrait of an Alcoholic and Calling a Wolf a Wolf (2017), and Pilgrim Bell (2021). He's been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship (2024) as well as a couple of Pushcart Prizes (2017, 2018). So I was curious whether I'd find Martyr!, his debut novel and already a NYT bestseller, as compelling as his poetry.
Without giving too much away...
SUMMARY
Cyrus Sham is an Iranian-American wannabe poet who makes his living by impersonating the dying at a hospital in the Indiana college town where he earned his degree in English. Having lost his mother as an infant and his father during his sophomore year at university, Cyrus is an orphan, his only family member an uncle in Iran, to whom he speaks once a year by phone. Sexually ambiguous and in recovery from alcohol and substance addiction, Cyrus is 28, adrift, and painfully aware of it. When he learns of an exhibition featuring a dying artist, Orkideh, in a Brooklyn museum, Cyrus and his roommate Zee impulsively take off to NYC, on the chance that meeting and talking with the artist might give Cyrus some direction or inspiration for a book on martyrdom (and possible life goal) he's been contemplating. What Cyrus discovers on this journey answers some questions and raises others, while opening his eyes to what's been hiding in plain sight.
OPINIONS
Book club members' opinions were divided. Some of this may have to do with how they accessed the book, whether in audiobook format or on the page. I invested the $28 for the hardcover because for most literature I prefer the experience of the paper page. I notice a lot more when I'm able to make notes and highlight beautiful sentences as I go (my copy is now heavily highlighted). We all agreed that the protagonist, Cyrus Sham, was not particularly likeable. One of us (not me) openly hated him (in a good way) while another found him whiney. As a writer myself, I found the choice to present Cyrus's sections of the book in third person, while other characters were presented in first person, intriguing.
A couple of our group members said they did not get what the book was about. I have a different point of view. Again, without giving too much away, I think it's about what the author says it's about and circles around to revisit in various ways: God/whatever that means; addiction and recovery; "amongness"; growing up in America without feeling American; queerness in different contexts; shame; love. If I had to narrow it down to two, I'd pick God and love.
All our book club folk enjoyed President Invective. Some of them missed some of the literary references (there are many and I think it's important to pay attention to how they are deployed). Again, trying not to give too much away, I'm going to share a few of my favorite sentences, but only a few, because if I shared all the ones I highlighted and savored, it would result in a copyright infringement.
A FEW FAVORITE SENTENCES
"You're upset with me and quoting Borges in order to cudgel me with your great intellect."
The axe had a drumstick's simple sense of purpose. Hold this, hit that.
He was skinny in a scrawny way, not like a runner but like a mathematician who forgets to eat.
Humans are just a long emptiness waiting to be filled.
When I say nations, I mean "armed marketplaces."
OK, that's more than a few. It's just that there are so many. (Read it for yourself to discover the rest.) Other things I found interesting about this book: multiple points of view interspersed with government memos and bits of Cyrus's developing book; dream dialogues between unlikely pairs; beautifully wrought metaphors and similes, some of which accompany the diction of particular characters, while others lift sentences right off the page.
Not all members of my book club would agree, but on a scale of 1 to 5 crows, this is 5 crows for me.
Comments