Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Catching up with three very different books

Martyr by Kaveh Akbar

Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party by Edward Dolnick

Pony Confidential by Christina Lynch

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I have fallen behind on my reviews over the last few weeks, so I’m cramming the last three books I read into one review in order to catch up. These books are about as tonally different from each other as it is possible to be, so expect some whiplash. Martyr tells the story of Cyrus, an Iranian-American poet and recovering addict. Decades ago, his mother died when the plane she was on was mistakenly shot down by the United States Army. Trying to find meaning […]

An Eminently Quotable Novel

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

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This book was a first for me: the first time I ever tabbed a book. I had avoided doing so in the past because I thought it required some kind of system, but this novel is just so quotable that I couldn’t resist (though I didn’t develop a system). It’s largely about Cyrus, an Iranian-American man whose life has been shaped by tragedy, generational trauma, and addiction. Now two years into recovery, he is focused on trying to find meaning and purpose in life and […]

What is the meaning of death?

Martyr! A Novel by Kaveh Akbar

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The main character of Martyr! is Cyrus Shams, a thirty year old Iranian American living in a small university town in Indiana. Cyrus is an alcoholic, a drug abuser, and a poet, and he is obsessed with martyrdom. More precisely, he wants to know how to have a good death, a death that means something. This quest is rooted in his past and his family tragedies, but his search for enlightenment will propel him foreword into startling territory.  Cyrus Shams was born in Iran in […]

A Wild and Beautiful Work of Art

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

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Kaveh Akbar’s novel Martyr! will stay with me for a long time, I think. It is as flinty as it is lush; austere and cold and wildly warm. Akbar’s main character, Cyrus, is an orphaned man, recovering alcoholic, poet, and perpetual seeker of meaning. He veers wildly between belief and emptiness, the terror of living and his insatiable need to feel its purpose. Although Cyrus is the protagonist, the book’s chapters are a whirlwind of other perspectives and time frames: Cyrus’s Iranian mother–killed when her […]

Poetry in Fiction

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

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Cyrus Shams has been adrift for years. Born in Iran, he lost his mother very early when her plane was shot down by mistake by a U.S. Navy warship. (This really happened. Look up Iran Air Flight 655 for more information.) His father took Cyrus to Indiana, of all places, where he worked himself to death on a chicken farm before Cyrus had finished college. In 2017, Cyrus has sobered up and finally graduated, but he’s still hanging around his college town, bumming around at […]



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