True to his name, Cyrus Shams thinks his life may just be a pointless sham. He grieves for his parents who have died senselessly. He is a minority attempting to belong in a racist society. He is a poet struggling with the inadequacies of language and art to represent life. His coping strategies are not working for him anymore (e.g., substance abuse, sexual experimentation). His life seems empty, and depression has left him toying with suicidal thoughts. He fixates on martyrs and martyrdom as ways to have a death that matters. Remarkably, Akbar takes this sad sack with all this baggage and makes him a truly likeable character. If a bit jaded, Cyrus is also earnest, humorous, and intelligent. Akbar brilliantly uses his protagonist to explore a broad tapestry of provocative ideas, including death, psychic pain, grief, alienation, addiction, multiculturalism, racism, capitalism, and love.

A meandering narrative primarily is told from Cyrus’ perspective, but also includes sections narrated by his parents, his uncle and various friends, including his AA mentor and Zee, his best friend and sometime lover. Akbar also includes conversations with various celebrities imagined while Cyrus struggles with insomnia. However, the story gains its footing with the chapters about Orkideh, an Iranian-American painter obsessed with her own art. She has terminal cancer and has decided to end her life talking to strangers in an installation she calls “Death-Speak” at a Brooklyn Museum. Cyrus gets wind of this and decides to visit with her to discuss his doubts about his own art, death, martyrdom.

Clearly, this is a novel of ideas—maybe too many. Yet Akbar gives us a coherent narrative. Despite the multiplicity of voices he employs, his characters are believable and nuanced. The final plot twist will undoubtedly be the most memorable feature of the novel for most readers, but some may find it a bit too much of a stretch to be believed. ( )

The story of Cyrus, a twenty-something poet who wonders why he is alive and wants to make his death, and thus his life, mean something. Thoughtful and has some really good twists, ( )

Poet author has written a beautiful book of a grieving young Iranian migrant to the U.S. who lost his mother as a baby. He plans a life and work centered around the lives and attitudes of martyrs over time as he contemplates his own demise until he meets an artist who is actually dying. Bleak but the writing buoyed this reader through to its fitting finale. ( )

A very thought provoking book. Cyrus lives his life thinking that his mother died in a terrorist attack on an airplane. His father raises him and dies also. Cyrus is finally a recovering alcoholic who has strokes of genius in viewing and writing about the world. He is fixated on martyrdom. The book goes back and forth between narrators and time periods but it flows really well. Because of my time schedule it took me longer to read this book than it should have. I may have enjoyed it more if I hadn’t lost the flow. ( )

4.25] This moving debut novel was penned by a poet I was unfamiliar with until I saw him in an interview on PBS. Akbar is a skilled word merchant who has managed to create a work that is creative, oftentimes hilarious and impressively thought-provoking. I had high hopes during the first third of the book that it might land on my sparsely populated 5-star list. Sadly, it sagged a bit at the midway point. But the stunning conclusion and overall originality of Akbar’s work earns it a high rating. One of the most riveting subplots involves the young protagonist’s struggles with substance abuse. During the televised interview, the author confided that his addictions to alcohol and drugs in his 20s nearly destroyed him. There’s no doubt that his firsthand experiences helped him to brilliantly chronicle the challenges of addiction. During the interview, Akbar said writing his first novel was “thrilling,” adding that he studied an eclectic selection of narratives in an almost maniacal fashion. This poet’s maiden voyage into fictional waters will entertain, enlighten and impress readers. ( )