Dear Readers-
I attended book club again- and I admit I was looking forward to this one. This Thursday we discussed Martyr! By Kaveh Akbar
This book has had praise after praised heaped on it, It ia National Book Award Finalist, a Barak Obama Pick and is generally given positive reviews. It addressed a lot of difficult themes - alcoholism and it's aftermath, parental relationships, and more. Honestly, seeing this book as a book club choice- was one reason I decided I should stick with book club.
It turns out that Akbar was a step too far for the majority of my local public library book club. (It might not be for yours, but for mine...the crash out was...something to witness.) I will say, none of us (myself included) had all the literary tools to really fully discuss this book- not in the way it probably should be discussed. I felt inadequate, but I noticed that for the discussion leader, she just had a bit of a hard time because she just disliked the book that she herself chose.
-Firstly there was poetry in the book and she felt it should "rhyme" and thus, Akbar was not a "good poet" . Some - not all- women agreed heartily. She missed the deep long standing tradition of poetry in Iran and Persian culture, and if it had hit her in the face, I am still not sure she could have seen it. There was no way that I could find to quite approach this without kind of going off in some sort of weird academic rant, so.... I did not. A lot of poetry does not rhyme, and it's good, but requires some sitting with and engagement, and possibly some self reflection. I'm not sure this particular person is up for sitting with one phrase or verse for a day or two, or longer.
Then, she showed she had really tried to engage with the book but just couldn't take a step out of herself. She discussed how when her family came to the United States (back in the 1900's - a different time and era) they "assimilated" and she could not- for the life of her -figure out why Cyrus and his father didn't seem to have done so, and wasn't it important to assimilate? One lady started to go on and on about how Martyrs are really supposed to be Catholic saints, and what was this author doing using that term so casually... and this was not going along well. So, I avoided the discussion of saints and martyrs because... I am not Catholic and I don't have saints in my religion and I'm woefully uneducated about those martyrs. BUT...
How Book club felt that Thursday: Bain News Service, Publisher. Instructing Yeowomen. , ca. 1915. [Between and Ca. 1920] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2014706572/.
I did step in here and discuss how assimilation was different for people in different eras and that lately many people feel that it's important to acknowledge, and even celebrate differences in language, food choices, and literature and that this is actually part of what makes our country unique. In addition, I discussed that for a person of color, it is hard to fly under the radar as people notice skin color. To my surprise, a lot of people in the room agreed with me, and I was glad of that. I then went on to discuss how it can be difficult to assimilate when people treat you as "other" because of the color of your skin, and thus there would be a large difference between the experiences of immigrants of color, and also immigrants in different time periods. I also pointed out that while one can change an accent, and a manner of dress, the color of one's skin is not typically changeable. One woman protested that she "doesn't see color" (and of course she does.) but for the most part, I felt like we as a group did come to an understanding that indeed the immigration experience of Irish folk was quite different from the immigrant experience of Iranians.
I do not think one can really "compare" two different waves/times of immigration to decide that one way was "better" these are just the way things happened. Book club leader conceded that this might just be a good point.
We then moved on to the issue of addiction and the character was roundly criticized for "not doing anything" not getting out of the pit. Thankfully someone else spoke up to discuss how difficult it is for addicts to resurrect themselves. The state I live in has a lot of recovering addicts, and my county especially has the stats to back that up, so I knew- as I surveyed the room that many of these people have someone in their lives that's fought, lost, - or is still fighting that battle. It was an interesting mix of discussion and it really showed the gamut of beliefs and idea about people and addiction.
Moving on there was a spirited discussion of the mother, the plane crash and the position of women in Iran over time. We concluded that the change in the way women were viewed was very fast and that it might be a lesson for all of us. Then someone complained that the author did not highlight this more - even though this was clearly not the main theme or interest of the book or author. Every book cannot address every topic, however worthy.
Our fearless leader attempted to say that Akbar did not do any "Character Development" with Cyrus and that "he just stayed the same", for the most part in his struggle. I had not completely finished the book but I feel like She does not understand that some characters in literature have a Flat character arc, an Anti-arc, and even a Negative Arc. She has said multiple times "our club is interested in deep character development" (which based on the books we've read is not true) and I think she really wanted to flog poor Cyrus for not having an easily understood arc. I mean, I get it, - I had some issues with this one as well, but mostly because I was a little slow on the uptake, not because of the book itself.
In conclusion, she decided that even though some people didn't like the book, she thought the author would be "proud of us" for engaging in conversation about the book. I had some VERY PRIVATE THOUGHTS about the author and what he might think of a group of middle aged readers attempting to understand a very complex novel with really- not enough tools in our toolshed. (Myself included). I am not sure "Proud" would be any part of it. I suspect he's pleased people are reading and interacting with his work, but, I think he'd have to acknowledge that we were never able to get past the triggering things like parental abandonment, addiction, and immigration issues to some of the deeper issues that could be discovered. I feel he would be kind and forgiving, because after all, we did (sorta kinda) try.
This is the first book written by a person of color we have read as a book club. We only have one additional one for the year, and I suspect it's going to be slightly more palatable. Next year, my plan to to get them to read Brendan Slocumb's work, or possibly Elif Shafak. Both of those novels are (in my opinion) more accessible for readers, and although they address some similar themes, they are presented in a different way, so we shall see. Any other suggestions for a book club book?
Also WHY do I keep going to book club? Well, I have made a few friends. There were at least 5 out of the 15 there who noted they found Martyr! to be a useful read and that they enjoyed what they got out of it. AND, I feel like I can't wait to sneak in some really good books that will nudge people to new ideas, but not throw them right off a cliff. We shall see!
