“A Fraction of the Whole” by Steve Toltz
Spiegel & Grau, 530 pages, $25
To enthusiastic purveyors of contemporary literature, the debut novel is … well, a novel thing.
Remove the unfortunate-but-true factor of acclaimed authors coasting on their brand and what do you have? A novel with virtually nothing to recommend it other than what’s on the pages, ideas that may have been rolling around in the writer’s head since childhood. In a literary world that can be choked with hype, a debut novel brings a do-or-die excitement.
Last year, it was Joshua Ferris’s “Then We Came to the End,” a delightful-cum-dark office comedy. This year, it’s looking as though the debut victory may be the first novel by Australian Steve Toltz, “A Fraction of the Whole.”
The book is many things: an epic weighing in at more than 500 pages, a multigenerational family drama and a philosophical treatise that touches on issues of love, legacies, the paradoxical villainy of family members and the bitch-goddess caprices of the public eye.
Fortunately, it’s also suspenseful, entertaining, and devastatingly funny.
The plot follows three generations of men from the Dean clan. Views from the son and grandfather sandwich the bulk of action that follows two brothers. One becomes an infamous criminal beloved by his country. The other—and main narrator—seems doomed from birth as a prodigal intellectual whose cynicism poisons those around him, eventually rendering him the most hated man in Australia.
Although the novel is absurdly quotable, one passage in particular sums up the merry-prankster nihilism of the work. For example, Martin Dean (the hated one) comes to rue sociopaths after hearing of a forest fire. He tells his readers, “these dumb, bored, unempathetic people are all around us. We can’t trust anyone to behave himself. We always have to be on the lookout. Here’s the case-winning example: it doesn’t happen every day, but every now and again, people shit in public swimming pools. That just says it all to me.”
To give away more of the events in the novel would shortchange both the author and potential audiences. Suffice it to say, though, “Fraction” is a treasure trove for adventurous readers. Fairly often authors fall into the ego trip of self-indulgent claptrap i.e., this is MY history with relationships, these are MY thoughts on Sept. 11.
That’s what’s so refreshing about “Fraction.” Toltz actually gives you something in return for committing to his book. He seems authentically motivated by pleasing the reader.
If more authors approached their work the way he has, we would be better entertained because of it.
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