Steve Toltz

I remember my first encounter with this book - it was enormous, newly-published, and fresh on the shelf at my local library. I was enraptured by the book from the get go, and carrying this tome around with me for a week. It was unlike anything I had read, it felt serious and philosophical like a grown-up book while also just being so fun and stupid (in the most complimentary way!).

The twists and turns, and the jokes and ideas all felt like Toltz had been collecting them in a drawer for about show more a decade for his big debut. Sure, there is a very simple main plotline that's sidetracked through the whole book for the sake of all the bits but this would have been a lesser book if Toltz reined in the messiness. The word rollicking was invented to describe this book.

I resisted a reread for 17 years, fearing that my memory had exaggerated my enjoyment, that my taste has evolved into something more mature and would surely scoff at these silly and outlandish setups.

Surprise, my taste is still that of an immature teen!

Second time around, it was fun to see what I remembered (looking at you, Chekhov's bottle of tears) or cannot recognise (for a book set mostly in Sydney, it is extremely vague about all the landmarks). Here's to reading it for the third time in five-to-ten years.

Aside: since Arrested Development, do you think anyone has gone up to the author and went ✊ Steve Toltz ✊! show less

Virtuoso absurdist performance. Funny, vulgar, irreverent, stupendously misanthropic. Reading this book will absolutely convince you the human race doesn't stand a chance.

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 show more a relief that it is over.

Likely a 2.5. Rounded downward to reflect my mood. show less

Toltz's previous novel Fraction of the Whole was a fire burst of creativity and humor. Quicksand takes those elements and pressure cooks them into a Jobian story that examines what it means to be alive while constantly suffering the creator's ill humor directed distinctly at you. Throws off sparks of inventiveness and wit, and if ultimately Toltz has no final answer to offer us (for could one even exist?), his story's end leaves one with the impression that humor and beauty can still always show more be found in the spaces between. show less