What does a father owe a son and a son a father? How can a marriage survive adultery? Is pacifism feasible? Is fame any good? How much does winning matter? How do you shake a Soviet agent who's trying to ruin you and your family?

Before Gregory Wilkin finishes dealing with such questions, something unusual happens in his venturesome first novel, The Rabbit's Suffering Changes. It turns from biographical fiction, a kind of homage to Evelyn Waugh (Wilkin gives him a bit part), into something like gonzo journalism (a seeming homage to David Foster Wallace), both halves combining to tell...

What does a father owe a son and a son a father? How can a marriage survive adultery? Is pacifism feasible? Is fame any good? How much does winning matter? How do you shake a Soviet agent who's trying to ruin you and your family?

Before Gregory Wilkin finishes dealing with such questions, something unusual happens in his venturesome first novel, The Rabbit's Suffering Changes. It turns from biographical fiction, a kind of homage to Evelyn Waugh (Wilkin gives him a bit part), into something like gonzo journalism (a seeming homage to David Foster Wallace), both halves combining to tell...