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A Fraction of the Whole
A Fraction of the Whole
A Fraction of the Whole
Audiobook25 hours

A Fraction of the Whole

Written by Steve Toltz

Narrated by Colin McPhillamy and Craig Baldwin

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this audiobook

Steve Toltz's exceptional debut has drawn favorable comparisons to the work of New York Times best-selling author Jonathan Safran Foer. Stewing in an Australian prison, Jasper Dean reflects on his relationship with his dead father and recounts the many zany adventures they shared together. "... comic drive and Toltz's far-out imagination carry [this] epic story ..." -Publishers Weekly, starred review
LanguageEnglish
Release dateApr 11, 2008
ISBN9781436116824
A Fraction of the Whole
Author

Steve Toltz

Steve Toltz’s first novel, A Fraction of the Whole, was released in 2008 to widespread critical acclaim, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Guardian First Book Award. Prior to his literary career, he lived in Montreal, Vancouver, New York, Barcelona, and Paris, variously working as a cameraman, telemarketer, security guard, private investigator, English teacher, and screenwriter. Born in Sydney, he currently lives in New York.

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Reviews for A Fraction of the Whole

Rating: 3.8998127696629217 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Once in a while I will read a book that will leave me utterly astounded. After I finish such a book I feel moved in a way I cannot explain. I become almost zealous in my advertising of said book, telling relatives, friends, colleagues etc. I want to leap on strangers on trains who are reading it and form a lifetime friendship or hand out copies to people in the street who haven't had the chance to read it because they are missing out!Anyway, you get the picture. The point is THIS is one of those books. I started it a few days ago and finished it today and despite having been somewhat concerned by its length initially (700+ pages) I am already missing it.Toltz sets out a tale of an extraordinary man (Martin Dean) told partly from Martin's perspective and partly from his son's (Jasper). It spans from his childhood to his death and is one of the most remarkable works of fiction I have ever read. It's impossible to describe the events and characters that make up the novel (a criminal thug/mastermind - depending on your view - for a brother, a career criminal for a friend and mentor, a son he believes to be a reincarnation of himself and so on) without writing hundreds of words. Reading is believing in this case.Martin is a genius, a recluse, desperate for recognition yet desperate to be left alone, possibly insane, possibly with a better understanding of the human race than most people. His character is so complex and well written and that is the backbone of the book. It is a biography of Martin's life and a partial biography of his son's and both characters leap out from the page as if they were standing in your own front room. You can be utterly frustrated or disgusted with them one minute and be thrilled with them the next - and after all, isn't that the essence of many human relationships?Add to that a smattering of extraordinary events, another handful of believable, intriguingly flawed characters, some excellently placed quotations and you have an absolute gem. Toltz is clearly well read and illustrates several points of the book starkly yet beautifully with words from others. Yet it is Toltz's words that I will remember and this book will take pride of place with those other rare finds that have shaken me up. If I read anything else as good this year, I'll be stunned.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Everything that has been said about this novel, already has been said. I was not moved by the story at the beginning. The first thing that I did notice is the way the story is written. It is unique. The dialog and the descriptions the Steve Toltz uses is outstanding. More than humorous I would say it is very witty. I never busted out laughing, but would read the witty lines over and over again.A little past half way through the book, I almost gave up, thinking that I had already read the best part and I could not see where this was going. I hung in there and am happy that I did. I was pleased with how the author tied up everything at the end. No stone was left un-turned.Although it is a long book, it is worth reading. I fell in love with this book and I now call it one of my favourites.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    great story, I laughed out loud often
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    The Fraction of the Whole failed for me. The reasons remain unclear. Perhaps it is a younger soul's predilection, like skinny jeans. Novels which yearn to be hilarious seldom are, at least to me. This was a lasagna of philosophical rant larded with jokes and asides. It didn't bake well in my presence. Perhaps it is a longwinded Candide for the Oz set. The characters all possessed identical voices and the contrivance of the project induced groans. I remain both uncertain and unmoved. There is a relief that it is over.

    Likely a 2.5. Rounded downward to reflect my mood.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Some of my favourite books are Big Books --- Anna Karenina and Bleak House, for example. And I read Stephen King’s The Stand at least four times. So when I say “I hate big books,” clearly I don’t mean ALL big books. Just most of them. I appreciate a tightly written 200 page novel, 300 if the author wants to ramble a bit. My main complaint with long books is that I usually just don’t want to be in the world the author created for that many hours, especially now since life has cut back on my reading time. I like to get into a book, enjoy it, and get out, and then bring on to the next one. The other problem with every long book is full of filler that shows the lack of a strong editor. The upside is that with A Fraction of the Whole, I discovered more about myself and my distaste for long books. Before we go further, I’ll say that there was a lot to love about A Fraction of the Whole. There were sentences and paragraphs that were among the most beautiful and clever that I’ve ever read. There are sections that tell a great story ---one that is both heartfelt and entertaining. Whether you read critical reviews or reader reviews, you’ll see that people love this book, and deservedly so. But for me, it was just too much. I read and read and read and didn't feel like I was getting anywhere. I’ve been reading this book since March. That’s 7.5 months. What It’s About: Jasper Dean, living sometime recently in Australia, tells his story growing up with his manic father Martin, who’s lived his life in the shadow of his criminal brother Terry. Terry Dean is the most popular criminal in Australia since Ned Kelly. Individually, these three characters continually try to improve the lives of those around them by gambling on some off-the-wall scheme, but it always turns in to bad (sometimes tragic) unintended consequences. What I liked: as I already said, great writing and storytelling. Why I Struggled: 1.The singular voice—definitely my biggest problem with A Fraction of the Whole. Some parts are told by Jasper, some by Martin, but they both have the exact same voice. And it’s always slightly frenzied. Although the voice could be very, very funny, overall, I found it tedious. Note to self: perhaps for long novels, look for 3rd person narration and a variety of characters. 2.My edition was only 561 pages long due to formatting, but normal editions are well over 700 pages. It’s rare that a book needs to be that long. This should have been divided into at least three novels, maybe four. Further pain ensued because the various breaks are random—this book has 7 numbered sections of length varying from 200 to 50 pages. Within these sections there are randomly spaced subsections. Long sections always make any book a slog, in my experience. Give the reader’s eyes and brain a bit of a breather, and often we can’t wait to jump back in. Don’t make us wade through wet concrete. 3.I was around 100 pages in before we heard from a female character. That just bores me. Also, at one point, Jasper and Martin have girlfriends, and I was several pages into a vignette about one of them and thought I was reading about the other ---I came up short when there was a comment about her being in her 30s, and I was all “hold on, she’s 17!” I had to go back and reread with the other character in mind, and I realized that they were basically the same person with a different hair colour. Was this part of the theme of the son reliving the father’s life in every way?, or was it the author’s complete inability to write real female characters? I’m going to say the later. 4.The characters were always desperate for money, but somehow they managed to eat and have a home to sleep at every night without really saying how. I don’t know, maybe Australia just has a robust welfare system. I don’t actually believe that. Other Things to Say: A Fraction of the Whole was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, which is pretty damned impressive for a first novel, especially when the author isn’t British (no slag against British writers, but instead an observation that we colonies don’t make the list every year, so all the better. Good job, Steve Tolz!). Rating: Mixed. 3.5 stars. I think that it took me most of the year to read, but that I still finished (I abandon books in a heartbeat), says something. Not sure what it says, but something. Recommended for: Reviews tell me most people like this more than I did, I despite my protests, I’m not sorry I read it. I just would have been satisfied at any 200 page section. Why I Read This Now: I had just finished the longish Books Are Beautiful The Little Stranger and thought I’d tackle another long book from that series. I had to take a lot of breaks and read other things in between.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The best think I have read in years. I could not stop myself from laughing and crying outloud.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a story that covers multiple generations of the Dean Family, focusing mostly on brothers Martin and Terry Dean, and Martin’s son Jasper. Jasper is the narrator of the tale, writing his story down from prison, and promising the reader right off that they will never find his father’s body. Although it took a long time to get through the story, oddly enough I rarely felt impatient. The characters are thoroughly developed and I enjoyed spending time with them. The tale has tragedy, humor, romance and violence. The only drawbacks were the long philosophical monologues by Martin, and the story itself was a bit overlong. After Jasper became a teenager I felt the author kept writing just to extend the story, and not necessarily because he had anything further to say. But the ending was lovely and unexpectedly poignant, and I find myself thinking about Jasper and wondering how his story continues. Four and a half stars.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    So far (page 170) so good! Unlike anything else I've read. Serious and very funny, at least if you find a sentence like this funny: "There's nothing perplexing to me about a leafy shrub evolving out of the big bang, but that a post office exists because carbon exploded out of a supernova is a phenomenon so outrageous it makes my head twitch." I'm not surprised it's by an Aussie writer. Here
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Funny in parts, but not worth the time investment.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    The life stories of Terry Dean, his half-brother Martin Dean, and Martin’s son, Jasper, make up most of the fractions of this novel. Sometimes the first-person narrator is Martin, sometimes it is Jasper. But it really makes no difference since their voices sound exactly the same. Indeed everyone’s voice sounds the same in this lengthy but tiresome first novel. There are moments of wit and startling similes, which in isolation might suggest a novel of insight and humour. Unfortunately the whole ends up being much less than a fraction of its parts.There is a kind of flatness in this writing, almost like a naïve painting with no perspective. Indeed the comparison might be taken further, given the distortion of the human form often found in naïve painting. Here the characters are thin and exaggerated and typically grotesque. The environment in which they live, which is ostensibly Australia (and latterly Thailand), is completely bereft of identifying marks. It might be anywhere at all. Or nowhere. As the story develops and the voice of the narrator is passed from Jasper to Martin and back to Jasper, you may get the impression that the author simply got tired of one voice at a certain point and switched to the other in order to sustain his interest, not unlike alternately standing on one leg and then the other. This might also explain the coarse peppering of the text with quotes from philosophers and writers from across the ages. Perhaps a bland stew needs such seasoning. But what it really needs is more careful cooking.Not recommended. Not even a fraction of it.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Not funny enough to make up for its drawbacks: too long, implausible plot, characters not believable.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A real roller-coaster ride! There is some fantastic invention or the other that just leaps at you from almost every page, and you just want to go on turning the pages, marvelling at such creativity. Except for a brief section in the middle which sags (no one can keep up that kind of frenetic pace), this is one sizzler of a book! Looking forward to his next...
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Ehrlich gesagt kann ich die Begeisterung für dieses Buch (hochgelobt von der Kritik, Shortliost des Booker-Preis) nur iMaßen nachvollziehen. Klar, an vielen Stellen ist es enorm scharfsinnig und dadurch auch witzig, die Handlung ist unglaublich absurd und abwechslungsreich und dadurch nie langweilig. Aber das Buch ist auch lang, bedrückend und in vielerlei Hinsicht einfach zu viel. Die Familiengeschichte des jungen Australiers Jasper mit seinem philosophiscvhen Vater, dem verbercherischen Onkel, der geheimnisvollen Mutter, der lebensfrohen Putzfrau, dem schwer einzuschätzenden ebsten Freudn Eddie ist einfach zu irrwitzig.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This started brilliant and for five hundred pages it just got better. Packed with hilarious one-liners and quirky observations it’s an exhilarating and often farcical romp through the lives of the Dean family, a tale involving criminality, mental illness and skip-loads of philosophy. It visits some dark places and could have been bleak and depressing but for some superb writing. I spent the first two thirds thinking to myself how brilliant must the book have been that beat this one to the Booker Prize.The trouble was, the last two hundred pages or so left me cold. Martin’s speech at the announcement of the millionaires was a great piece of writing, and yet from that point onwards there was a change in the novel’s tone. It’s hard to explain. Perhaps it was that everything seemed to have been taking place in a world very like our own but one where it’s accepted between author and reader that mad things happen more often than average. That’s fine. But then towards the end it seemed that the novel wanted to explain it all, move it lock stock and barrel into the “real” real world, and it didn’t seem to fit. The one-liners dried up and suddenly it wasn’t philosophy and humour it was just philosophy and reading it became a chore.Despite the above, I would still recommend this to anyone, the sheer quality of the first two thirds is breathtaking and who knows, you might see something in the last bit that I couldn’t.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Pretty much a tour-de-force of active, engaging writing for most of the way. Well-developed, interesting characters. Presents an interesting worldview. Engaging structure and point of view. A little rambling and a tad disappointing at the end, but that is definitely my subjective opinion only.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book is amazing and surprising..I really didn't expect to like it to be honest but Ed at Unabridged Books had his recommendation review on the book and I have alot of his same tastes so I figured it was worth risking. It's another Aussie novel set mainly in Australia with some traveling to France and Thailand for a bit. It's mainly a novel about epic life stories, mainly a father's and one really bizarre but interesting family. It's filled with insights about humanity and the writing style is one of my favorites. There are parts of this book that are hilarious and also profound. I never thought I would have loved a book that delved so heavily into crime and sports, either, but I dreaded the day I finished it..one to return to definitely. This is Steve Toltz's first novel and I seriously hope the man is working on a second.

    Some quotes:

    p. 4 "I hate how no one can tell the story of his life without making a star of his enemy, but that's just the way it is."

    p. 7-8 "Actually, the truth is I don't look at these photos much, because all I see when I look at photographs of dead people is that they're dead," Dad said, "Doesn't matter if it's Napoleon or my mother, they are simply the Dead."

    p.23-24 "I saw all the dawns come up too early and all the middays reminding you you'd better get a hurry on and all the dusks whisper 'I don't think you're going to make it' and all the shrugging midnights say 'Better luck tomorrow.' I saw all the hands that ever waved to a stranger thinking it was a friend. I saw all the eyes that ever winked to let someone know their insult was only a joke. I saw all the men wipe down toilet seats before urinating but never after. I saw all the lonely men stare at department store mannequins and think 'I'm attracted to a mannequin. This is getting sad.' saw all the love triangles and a few love rectangles and one crazy love hexagon in the back room of a sweaty Parisian café. I saw all the condoms put on the wrong way. I saw all the ambulance drivers on their off hours caught in traffic wishing there was a dying man in the backseat. I sa all the charity givers wink at heaven. I saw all the Buddhists bitten by spiders they wouldn't kill. I saw all the flies bang uselessly into the screen doors and all the fleas laughing as they rode in on pets. I saw all the broken dishes in all the Greek restaurants and all the Greeks thinking 'Culture is one thing but this is getting expensive.' I saw all the lonely people scared by their own cats. I saw all the prams, and anyone who says all babies are cute didn't see the babies I saw. I saw all the funerals and all the acquaintances of the dead enjoying their afternoon off work. I saw all the astrology columns predicting that one twelfth of the population of earth will be visited by a relative who wants to borrow money. I saw all the forgeries of great paintings but no forgeries of great books. I saw all the signes forbidding entrance and exit but none forbidding arson or murder. I saw all the carpets with cigarette burns and all the kneecaps with carpet burns. I saw all the worms dissected by curious children and eminent scientists..."

    p. 57-58 Tears came to my eyes but I fought them. Then I started thinking about tears. What was evolution up to when it rendered the human bdy incapable of concealing sadness? Is it somehow crucial to the survival of the species that we can't hide our melancholy? Why? What's the evolutionary benefit of crying? To elicit sympathy? Does evolution have a Machiavellian streak?...Is it evolution's design to humble us? To humiliate us?"

    p.89: "Betrayal wears alot of different hats. You don't have to make a show of it like Brutus di, you don't have to leave anything visible jutting from the base of your best friend's spine, and afterward you can stand there straining your ears for hours, but you won't hear a cock crow either. No, the most insidious betrayals are done merely by leaving the life jacket hanging in your closet while you lie to yourself that it's probably not the drowning man's size. That's how we slide, and while we slide we blame the world's problems on colonialism, imperialism, capitalism, corporatism, stupid white men, and America,but there's no need to make a brand name of blame. Individual self-interest: that's the source of our descent, and it doesn't start in the boardrooms or the war rooms either. It stars in the home."

    p.102: "Well, maybe Bob Dylan was wrong. Maybe you do have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."

    p. 148: "I'm no expert on linguistics or the etymology of words, so I have no idea if the word 'banana' really was the best-sounding collection of syllables around to describe a long yellow arc-shaped fruit, but I can say whoever coined the phrase 'media circus' really knew what he was talking about"

    p.155 "It was while lying in bed that I realized that illness is our natural state of being. We're always sick and we just don't know it. What we mean by health is only when our constant physical deterioration is undetectable."

    p.274-275 "Why is free will wasted on a creature who has infinite choices by pretends there are only one or two? Listen. People are like knees that are hit with tiny rubber hammers. Nietzsche was a hammer. Schopernhauer was a hammer. Darwin was a hammer. I don't want to be a hammer because I know how the knees will react."

    p.292 "OK Brett took his lie, but he also answered Hamlet's question without tearing him all up inside, and even if suicide is a sin, surely decisiveness is rewarded. I mean, let's give credit where credit is due. Brett answered Hamlet's dilemma as straightforwardly as ticking a box (NOT TO BE X )

    p.308 "The Internet! Ever since the Internet, complete idiots have been building huts and bombs and car engines and performing complicated surgical procedures in their bathtubs."

    p.407 "The Buddhists are right. Guilty men are not sentenced to death, they are sentenced to life."

    p.476 "As I ran, I thought how I hate any kind of mob-I hate mobs of sports fans, mobs of environmental demonstrators, I even hate mobs of supermodels, that's how much I hate mobs. I tell you, mankind is bearable only when you get him on his own."

    p.507 "Movies have made real life corny."

    p.523 "He never achieved unlonely aloneness. His aloneness was terrible for him."
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I really, really enjoyed this books. I kind of wanted to hurt the son, Japser, a lot of the times though because he acts like quite a fool. But the father is insane and they have crazy conversations that amuse me to no end and they build a maze to get to their house. There were a lot of twists in the book that I definitely was not expecting, which is always enjoyable. The ending made me wanting more, but I couldn't see it ending any other way.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Very GoodAt heart a father son story set in AustraliaWhere to begin my story? Negotiating with memories isn't easy: how to choose between those panting to be told, those still ripening, those already shrivelling, and those destined to be mauled by language and to come out pulverizedThe framing device for this book is that Jasper Dean is telling a story from a prison cell for an undisclosed crime. The story is about Jasper, his father Martin and his uncle Terry mainly. It’s a multi-perspective book and we get to see Martin grow up and the birth of Jasper from Martin’s perspective, Jasper’s life from his perspective and a later chapter again from Martin’s perspective. This is a large book at 700+ pages and it failed to keep my full interest until the end as word fatigue set in. I think if 200 pages had been trimmed this would be a 5 star read, as it was the later chapter from Martin’s perspective was slightly jarring and I struggled slightly to get back in the flow for a while which is possibly why it felt too long. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this though as Tolz has a great way with words and there are plenty of funny moments although the tone does get serious later on in the book. Overall – Entertaining but could have been trimmed
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is the story of two brothers, one of whom becomes a major criminal. The reader learns the story of the two brothers through the son of one of them. The story is dense, with a lot of rambling from some of the characters. I enjoyed the setup of the novel, and some of the humor in it. However, there was just a bit too much of rambling and too many plot twists.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Our narrator is Jasper Dean, in his early twenties, and he tells the story of his upbringing and his family; which is in effect the story about himself, his father Martin and his father’s brother Terry. Not an ordinary family by any means and not a particularly happy family, but certainly a very interesting and endearing family. Jasper admits right from the start that he is writing his account from prison, and initially one is not drawn to him, and it is a relief that he gives over the telling of the account to his father by means of Martin’s own writings recorded in is extensive journals; in fact the whole of the first volume of this three volume set is given over to is father’s first person telling of the families life, along with much of Martin’s philosophising. It is a story which starts in New South Wales, Australia, but which eventually takes us round the world, as with volumes two and three, we return to Jasper who takes us through the rest of the story with only the occasional return to Marin’s accounts. Central to the story is the relationship between father and son, and Martin’s eccentric but well intentioned efforts at raising Jasper to be an individual. But to reveal anything of the plot will would be to spoil the amazing adventure, it is full of surprises and unexpected turns; but it is safe to say something of the nature of the story. It is a very funny story but at the same time a very moving story, it will have you laughing on one page and on the next close to tears. It is a remarkable, almost unbelievable story with many seemingly bizarre coincidences, yet it is thoroughly convincing. It is a story full of irony; and a story of love and family devotion and loyalty despite the family tensions. But what makes this a truly outstanding story is the quality of the writing; the prose flows with such ease that the 700 plus pages should in no way be thought daunting. Steve Toltz has the ability to write not only prose which is effortless to read, but prose which is also immeasurably enjoyable, writing peppered with many very witty similes and metaphors; he will often lighten some of the more harrowing passages with such. His writing is also very perceptive of human nature, and it is this perceptiveness which makes the improbable believable. A Fraction of the Whole is an extraordinary tale told in a most absorbing manner. The characters are thoroughly likeable despite their failings, including and especially (despite my initial reticence) Jasper. The conclusion is truly engrossing and moving; many novels have brought me close to tears, but at one stage Steve Toltz literally had tears of sorrow rolling down my cheeks. Yet he manages to end the tale on a positive note with a real sense of fulfilment and hope.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is a difficult book to summarize in a short review as it had so manybizarre plots, sub plots, twists and turns that you never know where the storyis heading. Full of strange characters including three generations of theDeans, Jasper , his father Martin and Uncle Terry. It is mainly about Jasperreflecting on his father's life and finding that he too shares his cynical viewof society. Parts were enjoyable but it was so overloaded with plot and detail Idid lose interest toward the end .
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A Fraction of the Whole is a difficult book to describe because there is so much going on in both Jasper and Martin Dean's lives. They are both misanthropes, philosophers, and social critics. Martin is desperately trying to make his mark on the world while his son, Jasper, seems to try to avoid being seen at all. I thought it was very enjoyable and funny to read! There was so much interesting use of English, although sometimes I wished that Toltz had reined in his phrases a little because it was a little bogged down by attempts at wit.I consider a novel to be particularly great if it changes the way I see the world, and this one accomplished that! It has a great deal of what I look for in a novel: philosophy, sociology, psychology, compassion, and misanthropy. I would especially recommend it to anyone who would classify themselves as a misanthrope!
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    It's nice that this book has so many enthusiastic fans, and I'm not disputing their taste, but in the interests of balance I have to say that it was not for me at all. I kept trying. The writer has a jokey style, which is interesting in something that seems intended as a "big" novel. I found it too exhausting, yet too minor.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What a fantastic book in all meanings of the word. Steve Toltz has created some great charaters with wonderful philosophies and thoughts on life. A very entertaining read, humourous and sad.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A rip-roaring Australian yarn wearing its length lightly. Toltz's tale of his protagonist Jasper, his father, and uncle is deftly and comically written with a lovable messiness, chattiness and ease. The plot is not held too taut, but gives considerable room to the towering characters of Jasper's father - a half-mad, existentially furious genius - and his uncle Terry, a childhood sporting prodigy turned criminal mastermind. Certainly it's a triumph of style over substance but in a thoroughly enjoyable, romping way full of labyrinths and Southeast Asia and the caricatures and whims of the Australian tabloid press. Unofficially ranked third in the 2008 Booker judging, after Aravind Adiga's White Tiger and Sebastian Barry's The Secret Scripture, it might just be better than either. A cracking holiday read, flawed but lovable and page-flicking, crowded with (that hoary old cliche) larger-than-life characters and humour and a Ben Elton-plus perspective on the bizarre land that is Australia.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is a fantastic, fantastic book that I can't recommend highly enough. It seems to have flown under the radar a bit since landing on the shortlist for the Booker in 2008, but it deserves a much wider audience. It can be funny and tragic in the same sentence, and will leave you with a smile on your face but lots of questions on your mind. Steve Toltz unfortunately does not appear to have written any other books as of this moment, which is a real shame because I would drop everything and read anything else from him in a heartbeat.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Virtuoso absurdist performance. Funny, vulgar, irreverent, stupendously misanthropic. Reading this book will absolutely convince you the human race doesn't stand a chance.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A manic father, with crazy ideas about running the country, a How To crime book written by a criminal, a dead? uncle, a young housekeeper who, God knows why she stays, suicide, a firey haired girlfriend. How could Jasper survive to adulthood. Steve Toltz has written an amazing book with brilliant characters. Although there were a few passages I skimmed, when Martin went off into one of his rants, i'd have to say I enjoyed this book and I have a new respect for anyone who has to live with manic depressive person.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is the 711 page tale of Jasper and his father, Martin. Fractions of stories are related; those stories are fractions of their lives, and their lives are fractions of the greater world. All of this was inspired by a quote from Emerson "The moment we meet with anybody, each becomes a fraction." The plot twists and turns so many times it would seem unbelievable if I tried to list some of the things that happen in this book. The whole thing is a bit on the dark side, but with humor throughout. Toltz manages to poke fun at modern day Australian society through the telling of his work of fiction. The main part of the book is Jasper telling the reader the story of his life but to do so he must also tell us of his father's life, and to do that he must tell of his father's brother's life too. At times, the point of view is changed and the story is taken over by Martin's voice. The pace rolls furiously; the reader doesn't lose interest. I was a bit worried at the length of this book, wondering if maybe I would find the whole story pointless. I actually liked it. I liked the way the author connected a lot of different threads of the story. It speaks a lot about relationships and philosophy but what it says is interesting and I can believe that some people do feel the way the characters felt even though I don't. Toltz manages to take some pretty crazy characters and cause the reader to empathize with them. The story is, at the same time, funny and tragic. I think I picked this book up because of the cover and the title initially. I probably then read the blurb on the back cover and decided to give it a try. I read the whole book during a week's holiday in Portugal in October 2009. It was a great piece of fiction for a beach vacation.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Some 700-page novels contain intricately plotted narratives, filled with ingenious foreshadowing and satisfying pay-offs. This is not one of them. Integral characters and components pop up and drift away throughout, and the book takes such ludicrously sharp twists that it's a wonder the spine isn't knotted. The one-liners are relentless, and some of them are even funny, but this is a seriously light book in a heavy package.