Books of the Month

'A Fraction of the Whole' by Steve Toltz

Let's say the obvious thing straightaway. A Fraction of the Whole is a big book. It's an enormous, rambling, stretched out kind of book. Weighing in at 710 pages in the hardback edition, it's not for the fainthearted. But then, it's not exactly a slog, either.

Toltz is an affable storyteller. He gives us a narrator, Jasper Dean, who we learn is in prison (for crime or crimes as yet unknown), and whose father is dead. This book has been written, we're told, to pass the time while incarcerated.

Its theme is the family, and in particular the relationship between Jasper and his father, Martin. Martin - portrayed through Jasper's eyes and through his own diaries and writings - is eccentric, childish, moody, frustrating, inventive, hilarious, lonely, and above all, a philosopher who's spent his life thinking himself into a corner. Jasper spends his youth trying to understand, and then get away from, his father's influence. As he grows up he begins to uncover the truth about his own birth, and about the notorious criminal in the family, while at the same time embarking on his own adventures of love and self-discovery.

Set in Australia, via Paris and the jungles of Thailand, A Fraction of the Whole is an expansive, Quixotic book; part adventure, part ontological musing, and part family saga. It might be hard to classify, but it's not, however, hard to read. Toltz has an easygoing narrative style that at times feels on the cusp of looseness, but which manages to bring the story's many and various strands together into a satisfying whole.

Susan Tranter

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