Friday Flashback: Rec. #117: A Few Corrections

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some early posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand.

What: The novel A Few Corrections has a pretty neat premise. The book opens with the obituary of Wesley Sultan, a Michigan salesman. Each subsequent chapter begins with the obituary edited to correct statements that the mysterious narrator has revealed to be untrue, or at least incomplete. By the end of the novel, the short summary of Wesley Sultan's life is very marked up indeed.

Comparable to: Publishers Weekly compares Brad Leithauser's writing to that of John O'Hara, and The New Yorker says the book is like something by Theodore Dreiser. Take your pick.

Representative quote: "On this April Fools' Day the streets are animate and graceful and Wesley is seventeen. He's a dapper young man whose lean face and compact squared shoulders make him look taller than he is. You might judge him to be six feet tall --- the height which, throughout his adult life, he claimed to be. He is actually five ten and a half."

You might not like it if: You aren't drawn in by Leithauser's supporting characters, including Conrad, Wesley's brother; Adelle, his sister; and (my favorite) Sally, his ex-wife.

How to get it: It's in print and also Kindle-able.

[Originally posted 5/2/11.]