Book Review: Martyr!

Here’s my book review for Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar. Don’t forget to leave a comment if you’ve read it too. And check out today’s writing prompt at the bottom of this post.

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar is an incredibly unique novel that will change your ideas of what a piece of literary fiction should be, and what it can do. It offers quite the intellectual roller coaster, encouraging readers to contemplate important philosophical and personal questions (e.g. What is the meaning of life? And what will the meaning of your death be?). Its prose is also incredibly sharp and deep.    

Most notably I enjoyed how the novel forces the reader to contemplate the nuances and performativity of both life and death, and how life and death overlap and intersect. I especially enjoyed how it forces the reader to contemplate the meaning of life, which forces them to inevitably consider what the meaning of one’s own death will be, perpetuating an interesting circular type of inquiry. Such inquiries will likely not appeal to all readers, so I will mention that this book is likely for lit nerds and those who enjoy the intellectual provocations of art and language. If you merely want to be entertained or provoked to feel something different as you read, this novel is likely not for you. 

The lit nerd in me also loved how the novel focused on the importance yet simultaneous insignificance of language and how language helps us form our own worlds and identities, yet also comes up short in a lot of instances. This is notable in the title of the novel, after all. Who is the martyr of the novel, if there is one at all? How does the novel challenge our preconceived notions of who is a martyr and why, as well as what martyrdom essentially means? And so on. 

I found the different narratives throughout the novel interesting and poignant and would encourage readers to read at least one third of the novel before making any type of lasting judgment. Yet the different narratives and perspectives and points of view used throughout the novel also made it difficult to develop a true affinity for any of the characters and what they were going through, which unfortunately made them seem a bit superficial and egocentric in the end. They ended up being more like caricatures in a distant tale being told than characters experiencing something real and tangible in the end somehow. I was also dismayed that Cyrus’s document wasn’t completed and or revisited in the final pages of the novel, as that is what influenced the overarching plot of the novel and nearly everything else that happens in the novel. Perhaps I missed something? 

Overall, this novel was definitely worth the read and lit nerds and fans of literary fiction will likely enjoy it. 

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Today’s Writing Prompt