A Fraction Of the Whole - Steve Toltz

A Fraction Of The Whole
Steve Toltz
Viking

Short Listed for the Man Booker prize in 2008, 'A Fraction of the Whole' was originally rejected by agents and publishers in Australia. It was only through a chance contact that the book was brought to the attention of Random House America and like a real-life fairytale went on to receive worldwide release and a nod from the most prestigeous literary prize.

Set in Australia, the book follows the Deans Family as retold by Martin Dean.

'The fact is, the whole of Australia despises my father more than any other man, just as they adore my uncle more than any other man. I might as well set the story straight about both of them.'

And so begins the first part of the book where we are taken on a rollicking rollercoaster of a family yarn. Witty and side-splittingly funny, it is delightfully original and satisfying. Unfortunately that's where the fun ends. From there, Toltz takes the reader on a different tangent. We learn about his parents through his father's diaries upon which, the book loses all its adventurous flare and instead settles into a steady tedium that overshadowes it's original momentum. There are still occasional flashes of its brilliant start but they became increasingly rare as the book draggs on.

A Fraction of The Whole starts with a great deal of promise and probably could have kept it, had it been culled back by a few 100 pages to maintain its momentum.