A Fraction of the Whole
by Steve Toltz
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Book Summary Information
Author: Steve ToltzEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-09-23
ISBN: 0385521731
Number of pages: 576
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Book Reviews of A Fraction of the Whole
Book Review: The fraction that reveals the whole
Summary: 5 Stars
The insightful and self-deprecating protagonists in this book kept me alternating among sitting in awe at the innovative and thoughtful notions, laughing out loud at the snipes, and falling into a state of deep suspense during the action. Each character is written with a fine hand, and the book provides very illuminating glimpses into the temperament of quirky, contrary, endearing Australia and the people who live there.
Having become somewhat familiar with Australia and even lived in Sydney for a short time, I found this book to be a revelation. It explains a lot about Australia in the most elucidating way: by never really saying it outright. How I wish I could have read this book before I lived in Australia. I noticed a tangible sense of otherworldliness there, a sort of Wild West in the Bush that has put its mark on the people there, but I couldn't explain it, and so I dismissed it. In his book, "A Fraction of the Whole," Toltz presents a group of Australian characters that are innovative, compelling and attractive, even if they are self-described losers. The story is so convincingly told that I actually looked up Terry Dean. No, he never existed.
This writing breathes its way quite entertainingly through two generations. There's plenty of action in the book, but the heart of this work is Toltz's quirky take on various philosophies of life and death. Nothing is spared from his sharp scrutiny. Since I really can't describe it, here's an excerpt. In it, Martin Dean, the father of Jasper Dean, speaks an adolescent philosopher who is soon to turn reluctant criminal side-kick. He will eventually destroy almost everything he comes into contact with, if accidentally. Here Marty describes his view of the game, Musical Chairs:
"...I subjected myself to a dreadful thing called Musical Chairs, another cruel game. There's one chair short, and when the music stops you have to run for a seat. The life lessons never stop at a children's party. The music blares, you never know when it's going to stop, you're on edge the whole game. The tension is unbearable. Everyone dances in a circle around the ring of chairs, but it's no happy dance. Everyone has his eyes on the mother over by the radio, her hand poised on the volume control. Now and then a child wrongly anticipates her and dives for a chair. He is shouted at. He jumps off the seat again. He's a wreck. The music plays on. The children's faces are contorted in terror, no one wants to be excluded. The mother taunts the children by pretending to reach for the volume. The children wish she were dead. The game is an analogy for life. There are not enough chairs or good times to go around; not enough food, not enough joy, nor beds, nor jobs, nor laughs, nor friends, nor smiles, nor money, nor clean air to breathe. And yet, the music goes on.
I was one of the first to lose. And I was thinking that in life, you should always carry your own chair with you so that you don't have to share dwindling common resources..."
Here you have the kind of fresh writing and imaginative thinking that made this book such a pleasure. Never did I grow fatigued with it, and in fact, panicked at the end of a disc, not wanting my entertaining companion to go quiet. It did veer far away from what loose story it possessed to such a degree that the veerings were as much the story as were the plot points. I enjoyed that about it. This book is what Joyce was trying for in Finnegan's Wake, I think, and got caught up with his anagrams and his head up his own `plump mellow yellow smellow melons.' So if Joyce can say stuff like that for like 17,000 pages and be considered one of the finest writers of all time, I think Toltz can be allowed a little diversion into a discussion of Musical Chairs.
Read brilliantly by Colin McPhillamy as Martin Dean, and Craig Baldwin as Jasper Dean. They created humor in some passages that I am certain I would have missed had I simply read these books. The authentic Australian lilt to their voices brought out nuances in Toltz's work that only an Australian could discern. Here is one book where I would be willing to bet the audiobook adaptation far outshines the text version.
I review only audiobooks. Check out my other reviews, then download, plug in, and never be bored again.
Summary of A Fraction of the Whole
Meet the Deans?The fact is, the whole of Australia despises my father more than any other man, just as they adore my uncle more than any other man. I might as well set the story straight about both of them . . .?
Heroes or Criminals?
Crackpots or Visionaries?
Families or Enemies?
?. . . Anyway, you know how it is. Every family has a story like this one.?
Most of his life, Jasper Dean couldn?t decide whether to pity, hate, love, or murder his certifiably paranoid father, Martin, a man who overanalyzed anything and everything and imparted his self-garnered wisdom to his only son. But now that Martin is dead, Jasper can fully reflect on the crackpot who raised him in intellectual captivity, and what he realizes is that, for all its lunacy, theirs was a grand adventure.
As he recollects the events that led to his father?s demise, Jasper recounts a boyhood of outrageous schemes and shocking discoveries?about his infamous outlaw uncle Terry, his mysteriously absent European mother, and Martin?s constant losing battle to make a lasting mark on the world he so disdains. It?s a story that takes them from the Australian bush to the cafes of bohemian Paris, from the Thai jungle to strip clubs, asylums, labyrinths, and criminal lairs, and from the highs of first love to the lows of failed ambition. The result is a rollicking rollercoaster ride from obscurity to infamy, and the moving, memorable story of a father and son whose spiritual symmetry transcends all their many shortcomings.
A Fraction of the Whole is an uproarious indictment of the modern world and its mores and the epic debut of the blisteringly funny and talented Steve Toltz.
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