I received an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Persepolis Publishing, and the author Alexandre Montagu.
This book had an interesting premise, and a lot of potential. Unfortunately I found the way that it was written incredibly tiresome.
The author seemed more preoccupied with showing off his own knowledge and experience, rather than trying to tell the story.
It seems as though every natural adjective had been replaced by ones the author had found in a thesaurus, using words like alembic, concomitant, abrogated, fulgurant, soporiferous and velleities, instead of simpler versions which would have worked just as well. These words added no clear additional benefit, and seemed like an exercise to sound more learned. This was also mirrored in the author’s use of similes and metaphors, using constant references to Kafka and Proust.
There were also long extracts that felt like Wikipedia entries, telling background history that could have been summarised much more quickly and concisely.
The issues above combined with story inconsistencies and continuity issues meant that the whole experience was pretty frustrating. A real shame!

I found this book in NetGalley when I was browsing for a book that I could read and review. It’s the words in the title “Riddle” and “Sphinx” that drew me to the book. I’m a huge fan of Egyptian Mythology and assumed this book had something to do with ancient Egyptian tales. Although I was slightly disappointed to learn when I read the blurb that it had nothing to do with ancient Egypt or Mythology, I was hooked to the book from chapter 1 and the story that the author was beginning to say!

The book is divided into three sections with the first section about the Main Character’s (MC) privileged childhood among the royals and elites of 1970s Iran. The second section talks about the character’s transition into a young man who goes to Princeton and how he finds his sexuality and how it impacts him and his relationships. And the final section talks of the MC’s successful career as a corporate lawyer in NYC and how he comes to a realization of his life’s realities. He finds Buddhism that ultimately helps him want to live his life in full.

I was initially a little confused about the transition from the first section to the second where the MC goes from being Kevyan from Iran to Eric from France. It bothered me for a while until I read further into the section and understood the reasoning for the transition. I found Section I of the book very engaging as the author describes the lifestyle of the elites in the royal circle and how drastically their lives changed during the revolution. The parts they were trying to escape from Iran and the trials and tribulations that came with it was agony inducing.

I truly enjoyed and was intrigued by the book up until the very end. I, personally, was not too happy with how the author chose to end the book. The author claims that it was Buddhism that helped the MC choose the path he took in the climax, however, Buddhism also teaches a person to be true to himself. That makes me wonder if the climax was maybe contradictory? Just my thought, others may differ.

One aspect of the book that I must point out is the writing. The author has excellent writing skills and definitely had potential to do even better going forward! The usage of Iranian and French Prose/Poetry and Quotes was interesting as well.

In closing, even though this is not a genre that I particularly enjoy, I found Alexandre Montagu’s book to be an interesting and engaging read. I would definitely recommend adding it to your reading collection, especially if you enjoy psychological dramas.

Eric, who was Keyvan ( a child in Iran) and also Eric ( a student at Princeton), is a lawyer and investment banker. He has a good life with money, power, and family. Over the course of this novel the stories of his other lives are told and lead, kinda, to Eric experiencing a moment of enlightenment.

The Riddle of the Sphinx has some really fantastic moments. Moments where the protagonist, in one or another of his incarnations, experiences am event or an emotion that really rings true. But it also suffers from moments where ideas are explained rather than shown.

The stories of Keyvan and college-age Eric are interesting and have some interesting emotional notes. Modern Eric is less interesting and his story lacks the detail that made the other two stories come to life.

I read this book pretty quickly, and I did like it, but I stopped short of loving it.

Thanks to NetGalley for the chance to read it.

I found the discussion of Iran and it’s history interesting, and it’s honesty why I picked up this book, but I couldnt quite relate to the characters, the book never really captured me. Maybe it was the writing style which was very direct but not necessarily enjoyable to read.

Literary fiction, almost arrogantly autobiographical.

Keyvan/Eric begins life as an upper class boy in liberal Tehran before the Irani Islamist revolution, and the novel explores his life story and the choices he makes to become a family man and lawyer in present day New York reminiscing on his life.

It's beautifully written in parts, and an eye opening description of life in Iran in the 70s. A lot of his time as a literature student at Princeton is dull, the inner motivations of an anxious closeted homosexual, which is unfortunately about two thirds of the book.
Eric has two moments in his life that act as "sliding doors" moments where he could be pushed into a different direction or path. It's is structured as a Buddhist meditation which seems... contrived.

I lost interest towards the end. The "alternate ending" piece wasn't necessary and it left me skimming.

I almost didn't read this book beyond the first few pages. There were too many people introduced, too many names and relationships and details of how they related to the Shah etc. I didn't feel I needed to know about all these people - the main protagonists would have been enough.

However, I looked at the reviews on here - which are mostly good - and decided to give it a bit longer. I'm glad I did as once we got to the escape the pace picked up and it all became much more interesting. I felt this really should have been the start as it was exciting and put the main characters in danger - the earlier bit was just scene-setting. I did find the background details of the fall of the Shah and the rise of the Ayatollahs fascinating though as I was in Iran just a year or so before these events took place.

The further sections were also compelling, each in their own ways, and it soon became clear what the author was trying to do, which was to build a quite sophisticated structure. Though I occasionally found the dialogue a little stilted, I enjoyed the story and the characters. I felt I was gaining a good insight into the minds of the main characters/author.

However, the end was also too detailed to my mind - too much telling the reader about the Buddhist aspects when the reader ought (and I suspect most do) get it without it being hammered home.

So, I believe there is a very good book here but it is lurking inside this other wordier book and needs to be chipped out of the surrounding verbiage. Carve the work of art out like a statue from the block of stone and there will be a fascinating novel here.

I did enjoy it overall though.

Riddle of the sphinx by Aleixandre Montagu
This is an amazing read. We begin with Eric who is a partner in a New York legal firm. How did he get there and who is he?
His story begins with the fall of the Shah of Iran and the incredible power vacuum that this caused. Eric’s mother is an Iranian princess and there is a choice, do they stay or run?
Every life has turning points and there are different paths we can take. We see two versions of the events and do not fully grasp the truth until Eric’s vision towards the end explains why he avoided being blown up in Iran and how he didn’t catch aids in 1990s New York. His sexual obsession with Mark could have been a disaster but instead it just fizzled out. Like a work by Proust who Eric greatly admires he is on an exploration of self discovery.
The author delves into myths, legends and the human desire for truth and enlightenment to weave this story into an epic tale.We just have to remember that In Greek legend, the Sphinx asks "What is the creature that walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon and three in the evening?" The hero Oedipus gave the answer, "Man," Aleixandre Montagu used this question as the framework for Eric’s story.

The Riddle of the Sphinx follows Keyvan/Eric through three phases of his life, from childhood in revolution-era Iran, to young adulthood as a Princeton student, to middle age as a high-level attorney. The author does a good job evoking the confusion of a young person forced by the political turmoil in Iran to start an entirely new life in the US by way of France. In particular, he perfectly captures the tendency of many of the uprooted Iranian youth arriving in 1980's New York to make themselves feel important by claiming some royal-adjacent status, however tenuous. It's mystifying that this book was classified as a thriller, because it has absolutely nothing to do with that genre. I couldn’t decide whether it felt more like an embellished memoir or a recycled term paper.

The story might have had an easier time holding my interest if not for the author’s relentless over-explanation of everything. Instead of allowing the reader to understand the characters' feelings, motivations, maturity, etc. from their actions, he keeps spelling out what everything means. The sexual details are excessive and frankly boring. An abundance of forced (or worse, overly obvious) similes serves to distract from the flow of the plot. I found the numerous comparisons of high-ranking lawyers to gods or kings heavy-handed to the point of absurdity—and that was before I read the author’s bio at the end and saw that he is a lawyer.

What this book needs more than anything is a strong editor to cut through all the self-indulgent, overwrought prose. Specific words or phrases that may illuminating or even delightful the first time around become annoying tics the third or fourth. “Fulgurant” is effective the first time, mannerism the third. A good editor would intervene when the author becomes overly enamored of his own phrasing and keeps referring to the “alembic of time.” The same editor would doubtless tell a novelist who feels the urge to use the word “velleities” even once (never mind multiple times) to make up his mind about whether he is trying to write engaging fiction or an essay for freshman lit crit.

Alexandre Montagu's Riddle of the Sphinx is a narrative that is built like a mirrored triptych. Each of the three parts embodies a part of the ancient riddle of the Sphinx and develops a part of the protagonist's life. The parts, separately and combined, cast complicated shadows and illuminations on the other parts and on the whole. The thought-provoking narrative is realistic and detailed, as well as eloquently and authentically expressed. It is presented as three separate stages of life with unexplained gaps in between. The passages of time and place, the differing maturities, and the abrupt changes of focus often seemed to be separate stories instead of one person experiencing such diverse experiences.

The first part is about Kayvan, a child of privilege in Tehran, Iran during the waning days of the Shah's reign and the rise to power of the ayatollahs. I was most impacted by the contrast between the child's naivety and the historical account. I often thought as I read "I remember these events being reported in the news" and that this child was getting the entire emotional impact but, with only partial understanding, tried to piece together meaning of events that happened in his life.

The second part of the book is about a student at Princeton, Eric (who changed his name from Kayvan when he left Iran for the west) who is struggling with developing personal relationships with others, with bisexual feelings and same-sex attraction, and with an emotionally overwhelming clandestine love affair, as well as with defining himself in a confusing world, all while studying French Literature and trying to decide what kind of life and career to pursue. Often, the narration in each of these sections seems like a heart-to-heart conversation of private conflicting thoughts at critical times in the protagonist's life so he can talk it out and come to some kind of closure. He leave a lot of parts of the puzzle unsolved. There is confusing disparity between what happens, or appears to happen, in Eric's life and how hechooses to see it.

The third part of the narrative is a mature, older and wiser character who has gone to law school, gained wealth, and is a married father of children, becoming philosophical about all the things that shaped his life. He seems to be having an internal conversation and wrestling match with many ideas of world literature and philosophy - among them his childhood family culture, classic stoicism, French literature, Bhuddist philosophy, free-will vs. predestination, and blind luck - to explain the development of his life and success. Large areas of contradictions, of serendipity, and of blank areas in his account tend to add to, rather than detract from, the questioning and the message of the narrative. All in all, this is one of those "books that make you think." It's a book where the jury is still out at the end and it makes you wonder whether Eric is being completely honest in his life story and whether you can trust what he says about his life and about Life in general.

I would definitely recommend this book to readers who want to ponder or discuss "big ideas." I think it would be an excellent book to read and discuss with friends or in a bookclub. It might cause conflicting opinions and clarifying discussions about what the book says and about what it leaves out.

"The Riddle of the Sphinx" is a very well written book. I had not heard of the sliding doors approach until I read the reviews on this book after I finished the book. It worked until the ending. I really enjoyed the first two sections with the history of Iran, although I thought at times it read like a text book. I also enjoyed his time at Princeton. I think the ending could be a bit more realistic and not just have to tie everything up into a bow. Not many people turn over a new leaf after years of marriage and a high pressure job.

The book is very thought provoking. As I was thinking about this review, how could my life been different if different choices would have been made. At first I thought I did not escape a country in revolution, I did not make a choice between gay/straight, AIDs was not a big worry, career/marriage. However, I thought about it some more and there were many things that I could have chosen one path over another and my life would not be the same life that I have today.

I was given a copy of this book by NetGalley for a honest review.

The three part story of Keyvan/Eric was a mixed bag. The history of the Shah going into exile and the rise of the Ayatollah was very well done in Part I and the complex interpersonal relationships in part 2 were equally well done. I can't say much more than that about this work.

I found it difficult to get through the first couple of chapters, but then found myself engaged enough in the story of trying to escape Iran that I could not put the book down. The trials and tribulations, and the anxiety of trying to get out of the country at the time of changing regimes came across effectively.

Similarly, I found Part 2, with Eric at Princeton to be equally engaging. While he started exploring his homosexuality in Part 1, homosexual relationships became a central part of his Princeton years. It was hard to put the book down following Eric through this period of self exploration.

I feel the book fell apart in Part 3, the law firm years. The first few chapters detailed his failed or failing marriage that all of a sudden changes with a dream that chronicles his life, leading to an epiphany in Eric. The problem with this section is that then there is a shift to where the narrator explains this epiphany in terms of an amalgamation of moral philosophy courses. I wasn't reading a novel anymore, I was transformed back to college reading a textbook, which was a profoundly disappointing experience.

I consider myself to be pretty well read, with several graduate degrees and even so, I had to download my Kindle dictionary to look up some of the SAT words that the author sprinkled throughout the text. I feel this was completely unnecessary and detracts from the readability of the text.

I felt the conclusion was completely unsatisfying. I wanted to know how or if the family reconciled or dealt with Eric's bisexuality and what I did not want to read was a passage out of a moral philosophy textbook. The basic premise of creative writing is always "Show, don't Tell" and in this case, Montagu "told" us too much and didn't show us anything at the end. For me, the Riddle of the Sphinx is lost somewhere in the summary lecture.

My rating:
Story: 4 out of 5 stars
Writing: 4 out of 5 stars
Character development: 4 out of 5 stars
Overall: 4 out of 5 stars

Review:
The book tells the story of an Iranian man from an advantaged background at 3 different points in his life. The first part is set in the 1970’s and sees the man as a boy looking to escape the Iranian Revolution. The second part follows him during his student years at Princeton, struggling with his sexuality. Finally in the third and final part, the man is an adult and works as a lawyer who at first glance appears successful and content but reading on you soon find out that life is not as it appears to be, he in fact questions his life, achievements and happiness.
The book is well written and based on an interesting: “sliding door” alternative outcomes concept. This made the book interesting and different. The first part of the book set in Iran during the Revolution is fascinating as it gives you a relevant inside into Iranian culture and a historical overview of that part of Iranian history. Which I found was the most interesting part of the book. The ending of the book wasn’t what I expected. I also found it ended a little bit abrupt but overall I thought the concept of the book was refreshing and I enjoyed reading it.

This is a fantastic,challenging and beautifully written book. It starts and ends with the life of a successful New York lawyer who may be professionally esteemed but is internally not at peace. In between there is a superb description of the effect on his family and others of the .Iranian revolution and their efforts to escape. At Princeton as a student,Eric as he is now known,has difficulties accepting his sexual preferences and the homeoerotic chapters are sensitively and elegantly written. Now married,he eventually seeks internal peace but does he find it? This is quite simply a masterpiece.

As with its title Riddle, the book is divided into three sections that present the life of a man from a privileged childhood in Iran in the late 1970's, through young manhood in Princeton in the 80's, culminating in experience as a successful corporate lawyer as an adult. This has been called a "sliding door" novel, in that alternate outcomes have been constructed, and the less than smooth transitions between "lives" is the only reason I gave 4 stars instead of 5. The writing is lush, and of particular interest is the first, the part about Keyvan's growing up in Tehran, with much of the history of that turbulent time explained clearly and with relevance to the proceedings. Keyvan's transformation into Eric caused me some confusion at first, as I hadn't read other reviews which explained the concept of the book. Here a more scholarly approach, with a great deal being included, again with relevance, concerning Eric's pursuit of Proust and his own sexual awakening. Montagu is clever in his treatment, and I don't agree with other reviewers' opinions of the ending. It ended the way it had to.

The Riddle of the Sphinx is a novel that moves through alternate realities to show the twists and whims of life and the effect of becoming aware of this. A boy in Iran in the 1970s looks to escape, a Princeton literature student falls in love with a tennis jock who is failing French, and a lawyer in New York questions his life and happiness. In these three sections, the novel shows the different ways a life can change across alternative versions.

This is a gripping novel for the most part, particularly by the second section where it becomes clear what the novel is doing. The first two sections are engaging, showing very different worlds but clearly the same character, only changed by circumstance and life. The third is less tense, partly because the main character is now a man at the top of his field with a wife and children, and the way in which he grapples with and then deals with dissatisfaction is, ironically, somewhat dissatisfying. It isn't easy to explain why without giving away what happens, but it did make me rush through the ending. However, the sections in Iran and Princeton really feel like they are creating an atmosphere and a sense of place and time, which makes them work well as versions of reality.

The novel was described as something suspenseful and thrilling, but really these elements feel less important than the use of character and exploration of identity within it. It is the sense of the main character that really drives forward the novel and makes it engaging, and this is perhaps why it is a shame that the ending feels dissatisfying, because much of the novel does draw you deep into the worlds of the main character.

I was drawn to this book because of the historical fiction angle, and that aspect was beautifully written. The Iranian revolution, and life either side of it, was fascinating and heartbreaking. Unfortunately, this was only one section of the book, and I didn't find the later periods nearly so interesting. The plethora of philosophical references went over my head, and the tone was rather self-important. I found the ending abrupt, and seemed to come out of nowhere, as though the author himself had become bored with the story and decided to wrap it up quickly.

“The Riddle of the Sphinx” is a riveting, exquisitely written account of a young man's exploration of himself through the unsettled history of his native land. It is not only a finely elaborated story of a love affair but also a story of a young boy's courage and growth into manhood. A very well-written book that engages and perplexes the reader. Thank you NetGalley for the Advance Reader Copy in exchange for my honest review.

'The Riddle of the Sphinx' by Alexandre Montagu is a psychological drama with an interesting premise, but I personally found it difficult to get into. It's an interesting premise but let down by unrealistic dialogue and clumsy exposition unfortunately.

~ Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this title.~

Montague is a brilliant writer. He develops the two main characters in the first part of the book so that you really get to know them from their male adolescent point of view at a difficult time in the history of Iran. In the next part of the book he writes about two students who are drawn to each other while attending Princeton University. My only complaint about this novel is that the sexual encounters are too vividly written, leaving nothing to the imagination.

'I had so much to do this weekend and have spent most of it devouring your book. Just finished it. Sheer genius.'
A seamlessly sewn together tale of mind bending suspense and some history to boot