Erika Ostovsky's UNDER THE SIGN OF AMBIGUITY is one of the few English-language biographies of the great 20th century figure known in diplomatic circles by his birth name Alexis Leger and in poetry under the pseudonym Saint-John Perse. The biography does assume that one can read French, as all quotations from French sources are left untranslated. The body of the book is just over 200 pages, occasionally illustrated with photos. Ostrovsky does a good job of sketching the course of her subject's life, and through the course of his diplomatic career, she equally balances the activities of Leger the diplomat, master of European wheeling and dealing, and Perse the poet. What I found annoying about Ostrovsky's biography, however, is its highly speculative tone. The biography begins with long and often irrelevant musings on what Leger's mother "must" have been feeling as she gave birth to her son. The description of Leger being brought to his baptism reads like a scene from a novel: "As the prow headed towards the open sea, the wind freshened. An odor of salt filled the air. Soon, the outlines of the island blurred, and the servants on the shore were only a brilliant patch of color against the foliage. Then all traces of land disappeared, and one saw nothing but the sapphire expanse of sea. The child, asleep before, seemed to stir as soon as they were afloat."