A Fraction of the Whole (original 2008; edition 2008)

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. ( )

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."
( )

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. ( )

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. ( )

Very Good

At heart a father son story set in Australia

Where 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 pulverized

The 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 ( )