I have wanted to read ‘A Fraction of the Whole‘ by Steve Toltz ever since it came out. I finally got around to reading it. It was a thick book, almost approaching chunkster-ish size at around 700 pages filled with tiny font, and while reading it, I was distracted by real life, elections, addiction to TV shows, temptations of slimmer books. But I persevered and I was thrilled when I crossed the last page today. It took me 21 days to read, and that is a really long time for a 700-page book, but I am glad that I stuck with it and didn’t give up.
The story starts with the narrator Jasper Dean describing his life in school and discovering one day that he had an uncle who was a famous outlaw and almost a folk hero. When Jasper asks his dad about his uncle, his dad, after some initial hesitation, tells the story. And we are taken on a roller coaster ride as the story moves from past to present through different time periods and things get crazier with every page.
Reading ‘A Fraction of the Whole‘ was like reading the literary version of a Coen brothers movie. The dark humour is amazing and I couldn’t stop laughing while reading the book. It was odd, because the story is mostly sad as bad things keep happening to the main characters, but the dark humour is so cool and stylish that it lightens the bleakness of the story. The book has a brilliant first passage which grabs our attention. I was thinking that as authors always give importance to the first passage and the first pages of a book, the first few pages will be gripping, but as the book progresses things will slip and the prose will lose its charm and become plain. But surprisingly, it was not the case here. The prose is cool and stylish and the pacing is taut even in page 200. It is hard to maintain that for hundreds of pages and Steve Toltz has done the impossible. I loved that aspect of the book.
The date on the first page that I have written says that I got the book in 2008, when it first came out. I am glad I didn’t read it then, because I didn’t understand dark humour then. Though I feel sad that the book lay on my shelf for years gathering dust, I am glad I read it now, because I could appreciate it better.
My favourite part of the book was the first part which is about Jasper’s father Martin and Martin’s brother Terry. It is a sad story, a realistic story, but the dark humour is at its most brilliant here. Later in the book, the events become more and more crazy and at some point we have to suspend our disbelief.
The book also makes references to real events like corruption in sports – the Shane Warne – Mark Waugh interaction with bookies is alluded to. There are even two characters who look suspiciously like the media moghul Rupert Murdoch and his son.
I loved ‘A Fraction of the Whole‘. It is one of my favourite books of the year. I am glad I finally read it. This book came out in 2008 and it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. I wondered why it didn’t win. So I went and checked the shortlist. That year the Booker Prize was won by Aravind Adiga’s ‘The White Tiger’. I don’t know in which world ‘The White Tiger’ is better than Steve Toltz’ book. That is one more decision that the Booker Prize committee got wrong. Toltz’ book deserved the prize. Steve Toltz has written one more book since, but has otherwise kept quiet and slipped into anonymity. I don’t know whether he is one-book-a-decade writer like Donna Tartt and Jeffrey Eugenides, or whether that is all there is and he is like Patrick Süskind and has retired to a quiet life in the outback. I hope this is not the end, and hope he writes more.
I’ll leave you with a couple of my favourite passages from the book. I hope they make you laugh.
“I was taking a 45-minute shower. I know I was being unforgivably inconsiderate of the environment, but I’d read in ‘New Scientist’ that in a couple of billion years the expanding universe will have stretched to breaking point and will start contracting like a rubber band, time will run backward, and (therefore) the water will eventually return to the showerhead.”
“The worst thing you can say about someone in a society like ours is that they can’t hold down a job. It conjures images of unshaven losers with weak grips watching sadly as the jobs slip free and float away. There’s nothing we respect more than work, and there’s nothing we denigrate more than the unwillingness to work, and if someone wants to dedicate himself to painting or writing poetry, he’d better be holding down a job at a hamburger restaurant if he knows what’s good for him.”
Have you read ‘A Fraction of the Whole’? What do you think about it?
That was some undertaking Vishy, and I’m so glad the book turned out to be one you love! 😀
Thank you, Kaggsy 😊 It went on and on, but I’m glad I read it 😊
I’m glad you loved it as much as I did Vishy. Looking on GoodReads I read it back in 2012…wow, it seemed like only yesterday. It’s one I’ll definitely re-read.
I loved your review of the book on Goodreads, Jonathan 😊 I loved the comparison you have made of this book to other works. I want to read Céline sometime.
I’m so interested to see that you say you’re glad you didn’t read it back in 2008 because you didn’t understand black humour back then. Well, I did read it back in 2008, and I also didn’t understand the black humour or its other postmodern elements and I wrote a stupid ignorant review and subsequently apologised for it when I realised how stupid it was.
I guess what this points to, is how much we ‘grow’ as readers, the more we read books in different styles from different places on the globe.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Lisa. I went and read your review now and the note you added to it later. You are so brave and inspiring 😊 I want to read that book on Postmodernism that you have mentioned. Yes, it is amazing how we change and grow as readers across the years. For me, it was films which made me appreciate dark humour. I couldn’t understand it ten years back. Now I enjoy it.
I haven’t read this… the size puts me off (!!) but I do have his latest one in my TBR.
Yes, the size is definitely daunting, Kim. I was tempted by other slimmer books while reading this one, but I am glad I persisted, because it is wonderful. Maybe you can test read the first ten pages and see whether you like it before deciding to commit or not. Hope you enjoy reading his latest one. Happy reading!
I read this when it came out and I absolutely LOVED it! I remember it being so funny and your comparison to the Coen Brothers is spot on. You’ve made me want to reread it now!
Glad you liked it too 😊 Definitely a book worth re-reading. Hope you enjoy reading it again.
I remember you telling me that you were thinking of starting a chunkster, and you did it, Vishy. The sirens of social media are hard to resist. 21 days could be long according to your standards, but it is incredible according to mine. 😁 So yay! I haven’t heard of this book, Vishy. This sounds like a real fun, wild ride. I am not sure if I have the palate for dark humour. I don’t think I have read much, for that matter. I will test the waters soon. The first quote cracked me up, and the second quote made me think. When will it ever be enough to pursue art just for the love of it!
And I am not sure if ‘The White Tiger’ deserved to win the Booker too. When I read it years ago, I called it the best book ever written. 🙈 Now, I disagree with my past self. Like you and Lisa discussed, we grow so much in time.
Yeah, it went on and on for a few weeks, Deepika. I never thought that a 700 page book would feel this long. But I’m glad I persisted and got to the end, because it was wonderful. Hope you enjoy dark humour whenever you decide to try reading it. The quotes are wonderful, aren’t they? Your comment about The White Tiger made me smile 😊 I think that it was probably a new kind of story to come out of India and maybe that it why many readers loved it. Our reading taste changes so much across the years, doesn’t it? Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
[…] won the Booker Prize ever. Or atleast in recent years. The only book I know which came close was Steve Toltz’ ‘A Fraction of the Whole‘. The first part of that book which stretched to around 200 pages was filled with dark humour and was […]