Jasper explores his own life while conveying the story of the brothers, whose differences are reflected in, and reinforced by, every decision they make. He isn’t exaggerating: there is plenty to like and dislike. Jasper reveals at the start that his father and uncle are, in turn, the most despised and most adored men in Australia. If anything, the elevation to the ridiculous makes the moments of reality more affecting.īut you do need to suspend your disbelief. With its countless far-fetched sub-plots, A Fraction of the Whole is essentially a baggy comic yarn, but in it Toltz explores the deepest questions of selfhood and the dirty machinations of society. This is true of Fraction, but Wood’s critique of hysterical realism is that it fails to move, and that is not the case here. James Wood coined the term ‘hysterical realism’ as a criticism of Zadie Smith’s White Teeth (2000), saying that ‘stories and sub-stories sprout on every page’. Wearing its misanthropic heart uproariously on its sleeve, Fraction is a long father-and-son tale that traverses continents and nods to countless literary forebears on its way. A Fraction of the Whole is Sydney author Steve Toltz’s sprawling début.
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