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. ( )

When an Australian debut novel gets snapped up for a reported six-figure sum by a prestigious UK publisher; is simultaneously translated and released in half a dozen other countries, and wins major awards, it’s hard to approach it without some preconceived ideas. You expect it to be really, really good – and it is, in parts. However, I struggled to finish A Fraction of the Whole – and ended up unsatisfied.
This is how it begins: After spending much of his childhood in a mysterious coma, Martin becomes an isolated teenager, the cerebral opposite of his athletic younger brother. When a stabbing puts an end to Terry’s prodigious sporting talents, he drifts into crime. Martin takes him to the nearby gaol to scare him out of his future, but his plan backfires when they meet a loquacious master criminal who takes Terry on as his understudy. Terry Dean graduates from petty crime to make a name for himself as the bane of drug cheats, bookies and match fixers across Australia, becoming a Ned Kelly-like anti-hero. Meanwhile, Martin’s attempts to bring meaning to his life and change to his town end in disaster.
The first half o the book takes the form of Martin's confession of his failures and hopes to his son, Jasper. In the best philosophical tradition, Martin teaches the boy to avoid the rule of the crowd. But. in doing, so he sows the seeds of his rejection: he is at the same time Jasper’s greatest influence and his worst enemy. When your children are young, you feel that no matter how loud you shout, or how brilliantly you manipulate them, they're not really listening. Then they grow up and you realise that they've been listening only too closely. You've been a massive influence on them. If only you'd realised it at the time, you'd have behaved better. But you didn't and now it's too late. And it is way too late for Jasper.
The garrulous absurdity that makes it exhilarating wears thin when asked to care for the characters who don't always achieve the solidity required to sustain a 700-page novel. There is no perspective, no sense of how seriously we are supposed to take it all. A Fraction of the Whole contains some awful dud patches, and some sparkling comic writing. It bounces with sarcastic aphorisms and invincible gags – many of which reveal themselves, a moment or two after reading, to be arrant nonsense. And it is full of bizarre and unacceptable twists – like Anouk morphing into a sexpot multi-millionare publishing tycoon. To me, the second half fails dismally to reach its potential. I wanted to like it more, but there’s only so much self-analysis I can take.
I suspect that the hype and the awards will mean that Toltz's book is destined to sit on many a student shelf, pored over and passed around by the impressionable young. It gives off the unmistakable whiff of a book that might just contain the secret of life. But, being so big, you'll have to work all the harder to find it.
Toltz has the flair and most of the gifts required to write a really good comic novel: A Fraction of the Whole shows that to excess. Perhaps his next book will make up the remaining fraction. ( )

Australia, Fiction

I loved the panache of this book and the rumbustious language that the author used throughout. I thought a discreet editing might have pruned 100 pages (of its 720 or so) without losing anything and maybe enhancing it. ( )

Words that came to mind while reading this book:
Absorbing, Depressing, Sarcastic, Dire, Angst, Rambling, Sad, Vulnerable, Plaintive, and ultimately an extremely enjoyable read.

I never found the story riotously funny, rollicking or hilarious, as reviews splashed across the cover indicate. However I did laugh out loud, many times, but most especially when reading Jasper's accounts. His voice was so clearly man-child. The solutions he thinks of for situations he encounters mimic how I see my own 16 year old son responding to life. (And that's not really a safe and happy thought!)

Steve Toltz's writing is fluid and consistent which made this sometimes sad, sometimes bizarre, often satirical story a gratifying read. Highly recommended. ( )