"Talking to him about his various intrigues and scrapes with authority, I found it almost impossible to keep in mind any kind of linear narrative. He claims that the American government suspected him of spying for Israel; that Norman Schwarzkopf, the gulf-war general, once had him arrested; that the F.B.I. hounded Marina for years because it suspected she was former K.G.B. You can’t help wondering how one man managed to attract so much institutional persecution."