Martyr!: A Novel

Rarely enough to keep the experience special does the right book hit you at the right time and it feels like magic.Martyr! was both foreign and familiar, cringe and comfort, fantastical and realistic, and reading it is a memorable moment in time.It's an immigrant story, a generational family trauma, a college novel, an addict survival tale, a LBGTQ+ struggle, and country and city mouse journey, while wrestling with politics, art, love, poetry, writing, creating, mental and emotional health, dreaming, and magical realism. It's got NYC and Brooklyn! It's got everything you could ask for and more that you'd never think of asking it.My advice and while I'll refrain from sharing any plot or thoughts on that ending, is to just open it up and start reading... let it take you somewhere.It brought back coming of age feelings that I haven't experience on paper since Leaving The Atocha Station by Ben Lerner and is already a book I'm buying for others, pressing it into their hands, saying give yourself over to this, trust this book, and it will reward you with riches - then come talk to me about it.It's a book you want to read again right after finishing it. It's that special gift, that rare book, that you've already seen everywhere yet still manages to live up to and earn its hype. Read it.

I will dispense with describing the plot of Martyr! - that's been done enough in other reviews and the novel's publicity communications. To get directly to its net effect...Overall, I found this work very enjoyable, having begun it with no particular expectations and little knowledge of the storyline. HOWEVER, I consumed it as an AUDIOBOOK. Throughout its 10+ hours I wondered if it would be as compelling if I were reading it - indeed, I suspected that certain parts might be outright boring in script form. From what I am seeing in other reviews, I believe those wonderings are borne out. The vocal narration was outstanding. Crucially, it took care of what appears to be the most frequent criticism of the book's multiple POV structure: that, in script, all the characters sounded alike. Narrator Arian Moyayed did a remarkable job of bringing the various players to life and imparting unique personalities/voices to each. To those who rated Martyr! one or two stars, I'd say, well, horses for courses. To the three star raters, I'd say you should have listened to the audio - it might have hit you as a four, or maybe even five.As for other critique points...One, be alerted that Martyr! does not really have a "plot" as such. Like much literary fiction, it is character driven and philosophical point driven. Two, in a couple instances, the "point" being made has little or nothing to do with what is otherwise happening with the main character's life - and it gets a bit soap-boxy. Three, readers/listeners might detect an interesting compare/contrast between the narrative of this protagonist's substance addiction experiences and those of the protagonist in Barabara Kingsolver's "Demon Copperhead". Lastly, I've seen that some folks expected more humor based on the book's promotion; I saw none of that promotion so I didn't expect it, and for me the amount of humor was just right.As with all books, this one has its flaws. But if you are a literary fiction fan this is a very good book. I would speculatively rate it a solid three-stars in its written form, and highly recommend it in audio.

I’m not much of a poetry reader, but I think I’d love Kaveh Akbar’s. This book is a masterpiece, one of the first books in a long time I’ve started over and read the beginning of after finishing. I haven’t read it a second time all the way, but I think I will before too long, and 100% read this book again in 10 years or so.The main character is both aware of and not aware of his own foibles, perhaps like most of us? He wants to think he’s original and yet knows he is not. All ideas I assume the author struggles with, too. Perhaps all artists do in one form or another?I’m not sure I completely understand the ending yet, but I’m also not sure it’s supposed to be black and white. Or that choosing love is like a form of death… but I don’t want to spoil anything.I can see this book being too poetic and metaphorical and “complicated” (it’s not really, thus the quotation marks) for some readers. But someone much smarter than me once said that the best books can be enjoyed twice, at least: once for pure enjoyment and a second time looking for all the “so whats.” I think the Great Gatsby was the example I’m remembering, but sure there are thousands. Some of the symbolism is straight forward, some is personal, some is universal, but I’m sure many an English PhD student (or whatever) could write a paper on the description of language as an idea and both priceless and worthless way of describing life. A few papers about death and light and lies about angels we are all told to, what, make us feel better or feel worse? Again, religion is just language: it’s both powerful and utterly insufficient, like describing love or grief… but it’s all we have until we learn what this death thing is really all about, which we all will eventually.

Beautiful writing poetic prose literary fiction but only read because a book club assigned it don’t regret reading but didn’t leave me with much