Leithauser's latest novel opens with an unremarkable obituary of one Wesley Sultan, a 63-year-old Michigan salesman, married twice, father to several children. But when his son Luke realizes the obit is filled with ''at least a dozen errors,'' he sets out to discover the truth about his dad. Shuttling between the Midwest, Miami, and France, Luke interviews Wesley's various wives, siblings, and illegitimate children, and continually revises the obituary to include the dirt he discovers. This clever premise makes A Few Corrections sound more amusing than it actually is: Since events are explained through rambling family gossip rather than shown, Leithauser's story of the death of a salesman never quite comes to life.
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