A wonderful book. Highly recommended. You will enjoy reading it. Written in a very engaging prose. Nowhere would you feel being stuck or bored. Pick it up if you get a chance. Thanks to the author for a review copy.

Could have been a much better read but Montague gets mired in factual reporting of the Iranian Revolution and the use of superlative adjectives. Quite unnecessary.

In reference to the famous riddle on the three stages of the life of man, dear Reader sees Keyvan come of age as a privileged child during the Iran revolution, his escape to America where he attends Princeton as Eric and falls in love with the man he tutors, and his contemplation on his life in law and his marriage (to a woman) and children. Montagu weaves Keyvan / Eric’s tale carefully throughout the fall of the Shah, portraying the fears of the socially select, following Keyvan and his mother as they ride horses under cover of night over treacherous mountain paths, led by shady men of greed. In a dream-like transition, Keyvan is now Eric in Princeton, continuing his privileged life now as an Iranian-American student. Circling back to the beginning, Eric expounds upon the decisions he’s made in his life that have led him to this point where a chance encounter drops him back into his past. Montagu’s writing swirls around the story like fog, as though exposing relevant scenes, an intriguing stylistic choice.

It's taken me far too long to write this because I was so conflicted about this book. The Riddle of the Sphinx has huge potential - the key settings are so very compelling, the characters are unique and there are fascinating questions raised about the nature of personality & the ripple effects of small decisions.
However, the book feels as if it's in desperate need of aggressive editing. The narrative wanders from story-telling to heavy-handed detail to philosophy and back again. As a reader, it's difficult to become absorbed in the story because you're constantly being jarred back out by a sudden change of pace.
Some of the characters are one-dimensional (particularly the main love interest; it never really makes sense that anyone would be attracted to such a cardboard character) and their motivations don't make a lot of sense. There's also a very confused message around homosexuality - I'm not sure whether it's intentional or not but the author seems to be writing about gay love in one chapter and then condemning it in the next.
Ultimately, I can't recommend this book but I also can't criticise it too strongly as it really does have the potential to be a fantastic read.

Very difficult to rate.

How to rate a book that was great up to 90% and then, at the final 10%, it turned unexpectedly to such a huge disappointment, that everything that you enjoyed in this book BEFORE appeared in a totally new light. When the last 10% simply RUINED the whole book for you?!
Is it a one star because I didn't like the ending? Or is it 4+1/2=2.5 stars? (thinking mathematically).

Alexandre Montagu tells us a life story of Eric Richardson, aka Keyvan, of Iranian origin. From his childhood in the royal Iranian circles in the 1970s, through the Iranian Revolution and following escape from his homeland, through his college years in Princeton and up to his successful career as a corporate lawyer in New York. The book could be divided in 3 parts - the present time, the childhood years in Iran and the college years in Princeton. Though the whole story could be seen as a circle: we start with the present and we came back to the present time at the end. The circle is closed.

An epic journey through the time, the culture, the history, the traditions, cultural and mentality barriers, broken hopes, fear and desire and spiritual growth.

This book is EXTREMELY good written. Really good. An exquisite lyrical prose. A story with an enormous educational background and a cultural enrichment. A very interesting structure and twists. But WHY WHY WHY this ENDING?!

I am not a Buddhist. I am not religious. I don't believe that a man who was attracted to men all his life, could suddenly wake up one day, after a very strange dream, and (view spoiler)

My biggest problem is the message that this book is SUPPOSED to deliver at the end. We live in the twenty-first century FGS. To be free = to remain true to yourself and to your sexuality. And not to become a Buddhist.


Still I would highly recommend this book to all my GR friends who enjoy gay fiction.

I thought I would enjoy Riddle of the Sphinx based on the summary. Unfortunately, I didn't care for some of the content so I skimmed through it. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

2,5 Stars
I cannot remember if the summary of the book was different when I requested it or if I wasn't paying attention. I knew that something I read about it was getting my attentiona and I wanted to read it so badly. I even recommended it to several people on Goodreads before I started reading it.
So when I got around to start this I was surprised by what I got. Was this really the book I wanted to read so badly?
Pages over pages on the history and evolution of Teheran. Now a married Lawyer in New York, Keyvan remembers his time as a little boy in the elite social circle of the royal Iranian Pahlavi court in the 1970s, when he suffers an abrupt disruption of his privileged life when the Shah and his 2,500-year-old monarchy fall. We follow the young Keyvan as he and his mother try to flee the country.
After this part the book starts at Part 2 with Eric being in Princeton, together with Prince Ali from Teheran, falling in love with Mark, a student he tutors in french. Again the writing is good, so good that it got me to read it all when I was actually planing on jumping ahead.
A part is set to see Boris Becker play Tennis at the wimbledon, and this is also where the huge drama starts...
Part three concentrates on Eric being married and having a marital crisis, as well as questioning his life. Did he flee Tehran as he remembers? Did Mark break his heart? Did he go into the bath or not?
Might be interesting to some, the writing is also quite appealing. I liked the idea of the "What if", a character going over several possible ways of life.
While it was a somewhat easy read, it did not catch my attention long enough...

Initially I wasn't sure I was going to like this novel although the Buddhist religion has always fascinated me and I wasn't disappointed! We travel through Tehran to modern day Princeton and the law firm where Eric presently works. More than a coming-of-age novel, the book chronicles his growing up, his friendships, his blooming sexuality, as well as his attempts to hide part of who he is from his family. Questioning his near-perfect life and successes, we witness a vulnerable and often scared young man who so desperately wants to fit in but also to abide by the principles of Buddhism. It's a lovely, lyrical novel!