By August 7, I was already beginning to organize the book -- to see my way to something like its halfway point. Not surprisingly, a number of characters mentioned here later went through name changes.

I had the basic structure in place: each chapter would "correct" the obituary in one significant detail. These corrections would then be incorporated, as by a copyeditor's hand, in the obituary, which would be reprinted at the start of each chapter, with corrections included. The book would effectively be a means of obliterating one's starting point.