A Few Corrections

by Brad Leithauser

This moving and resourceful novel by one of our most acclaimed writers opens with a newspaper obituary. The deceased is Wesley Sultan, a respectable, unexceptional, civic-minded midwestern businessman. But the novel’s first sentence hints of mysterious revelations to “There are at least a dozen errors here.”

Step by step, the book’s narrator—himself mysterious—sets about correcting the errors, investigating the deceptive but appealing Wesley Sultan by way of the lives he touched and often his wives, his siblings, his
girlfriends, his children. Each chapter reprints the obituary but each time with a new handwritten amendment—correction piling upon correction until the original has been effectively demolished. It seems that businessman Wesley—handsome, dapper, flirtatious, and ambitious—lived a far more tangled and ambiguous life than the one he presented to the world.

A Few Corrections is both a psychological detective story and an epitaph for a vanishing figure—the gallant, sports-car-driving local Romeo who flourished in midcentury throughout small-town America. Written with humor and lyrical dash, it is also a compelling novel that explores its subject with wit and a flowering tenderness.

Genres: Fiction, Novels

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

BRAD LEITHAUSER is a widely acclaimed poet and novelist and the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including a MacArthur Fellowship. This is his seventeenth book. He is a professor in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and divides his time between Baltimore and Amherst.

Reviews

[Jeanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great title, especially as it relates to the subject matter. Obituaries are very revealing, not only in what they say, but what they omit. I thoroughly enjoyed this clever book. But then, I've sometimes been accused of having a warped sense of humor:)

[LG · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another little novel that could. The central conceit is that as the narrator learns more on his journey about the late Wesley Sultan, he discovers he must make a few corrections to Wesley’s inaccurate obituary.

[Karin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first Leithauser. I really liked his descriptions place and moral attitudes. I have mixed feelings about the contrivance of the story-- the editing of the obituary was clever and kept up some of the suspense, but not that crazy about the other major contrivance (which I will not spoil by revealing). Overall, I found it not terribly profound, but very engaging and will definitely read another Leithauser.

[Maryanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another "gave it my best shot, and then gave it up". I tried. I just didn't care. At all.

[Katy Lovejoy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think this book needed a few corrections

[Sheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wes Sultan has just died and a mysterious researcher is looking into what Wes was really like, as opposed to what his obituary says. Halfway through the book, we learn that this researcher is Wes's estranged son Luke. By talking to family members, he makes a few corrections to the obituary and learns what his father was truly like.

[Jillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s clever, this one: the concept of an obituary being gradually corrected, the delayed reveal of the narrator, complete with the perfect Proust joke... But fortunately it isn’t all just gimmicks. The characters take on real life as the story progresses, especially strangely fascinating Sally and delightfully cantankerous Conrad. 4+ stars, and quite the pleasant surprise.

[Louvaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed (if that is the word) this well-written novel. A son rewrites the story of his Da's obituary, while doing so he begins to understand his father. Weird synchronicity with my fathers' death.

[Joanne-in-Canada · Rating 3 out of 5]

A slow unfolding of one man's convoluted life. The book opens with his obituary, then proceeds to change it as errors (or lies) are uncovered. I read this on the way home from my holiday; good for dipping in and out of.

[Biogeek · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a true wonder of a book. A man dies and his obituary, nothing fancy, is written. And in the subsequent chapters the author works through his life showing that nothing was what it seemed. The obit needed "a few corrections".

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this one.

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

while the idea (the ever changing Obit) is intriguing, it went on too long. I was getting bored with the tale of Wesley Sultan toward the end. Glad I sucked it up to finish it, but....eh.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great idea for a novel and very well-written

[Denae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-written but not much plot. Still, an interesting peek into a small town Michigan life (through that person's impact on others).

[Brigitte · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'd like to give this book half a star. So very, very boring.