|
Loading... A Fraction of the Wholeby Steve Toltz
LibraryThing recommendationsMember recommendations
Loading...
won't like
will probably not like
will probably like
will like
will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.  sharonlflynn | Dec 29, 2009 |  Quirky and utterly brilliant (  ) MerilynP | Nov 5, 2009 | If you like John Irving novels, you should enjoy this one. To paraphrase that old saying: Sane families are all alike but every crazy family is crazy in its own way. (  ) SohoReader | Sep 17, 2009 | EXCELLENT! (  ) gandara | Aug 24, 2009 | I understand this is Stoltz's first novel and he put everything into it, including the kitchen sink. There is crime, philosophy, disaster, love, politics, family, mystery, and death. The book focuses on the story of a father and son and the father's brother. Both brothers are misanthropes yet polar opposites of each other. Though set mostly in Australia, it takes an interesting detour to Thailand. It is over 500 pages but is not so much comical as it is entertaining. ( ) captom | Mar 25, 2009 | 
 I'm sorry if I'm beginning to make it sound a bit rollicking. The stories, in fact, follow a pattern: they are almost all tales of good intentions with catastrophic results, such as the suggestion box which Martin installs on the town-hall steps and which at first instils a new sense of purpose and confidence in the community, but quickly brings out the worst in everyone and leads to his brother being sectioned. Taken individually, they're funny; taken together, the unbreakability of the pattern and the inevitability of disaster is heartbreaking.
References to this work on external resources.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Book description |
|
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.
(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:00 -0400)
The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details.
Quick Links |
Wikipedia in English
To say that the Dean family is dysfunctional is an understatement. Martin was a sickly child and spends most of the book in a state of deep depression. His brother, Terry, who started out a happy child, becomes the most infamous Australian outlaw in recent history. Martin lives in his brother's shadow, even after Terry's demise in a prison fire.
Jasper, despite hating everything about his father, seems destined to turn out exactly like him. (