A Fraction Of The Whole by Steve Toltz

cmi0616

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Usually, I would just write about this book in the "What Are You Reading" thread, but this novel deserves it's own thread, I think. Just finished the book this afternoon, and I'm at a loss to describe how awesome it was. Everything you could ask for from a good novel was in there, and this was the first novel the guy has ever written! For a 540+ page novel, it moved incredibly fast and I was never bored. This book made me laugh every time I opened it, but was also highly philosophical and makes you think a lot. I simply cannot recommend it enough to anyone looking for a good read. Defintley a new favorite for me.

Anyways, has anyone else read this? I'd love to talk about it with someone, nobody I know has had a chance to check it out yet.
 

mccardey

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Oh, wasn't that a wonderful book? I read it back in Sept 2008, and it still stays with me. Just checking my blog, I've probably referenced it half a dozen times - it's a beautiful thing.

"Betrayal wears a lot of different hats. You don't have to make a show of it like Brutus did, you don't have to leave anything visible jutting from the base of your best friend's spine, and afterward you can stand there straining your ears for hours, but you won't hear a cock crow either. No, the most insidious betrayals are done merely by leaving the life jacket hanging in your closet while you lie to yourself that it's probably not the drowning man's size. That's how we slide, and while we slide, we blame the world's problems on colonialism, imperialism, capitalism, corporatism, stupid white men and America, but there's no need to make a brand name of blame. Individual self-interest: that's the source of our descent, and it doesn't start in the boardrooms or war rooms either. It starts in the home."

*sigh*

Just wonderful.
 

cmi0616

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Oh, wasn't that a wonderful book? I read it back in Sept 2008, and it still stays with me. Just checking my blog, I've probably referenced it half a dozen times - it's a beautiful thing.



*sigh*

Just wonderful.

The writing, the plot, the characters... I really am having trouble remembering the last book I read that I enjoyed this much. I plan on re-reading it many times in the future.
 

mccardey

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The writing, the plot, the characters... I really am having trouble remembering the last book I read that I enjoyed this much. I plan on re-reading it many times in the future.

It stands up to re-reading very well - I haven't re-read from start-to-finish, but I've dipped in and out quite a few times. I remember reading gorgeous reviews about it, and every one had some different aspect that they loved best. Mind you - it's biiiiig..

You might like this one, too - it's just out recently.
 
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archerjoe

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I found it at the local library and I'm 1/5 of the way to the end. Several laugh out loud moments. It's hard to put the book down.

It was a bit jarring how it slipped into the father's back story. A couple of times I thought the storyline had come back to the original narrator but it hadn't.

While the subject matter is completely different, I keep mentally comparing this with The Old Man and the Swamp which is another "my dad was weird and crazy" book.
 

archerjoe

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Spoilers ahead!

One part of this that I'm having trouble with is the way Martin's story is told: the 17 hour heart-to-heart with Jasper, the green journal from Paris, a current journal when he was committed and now the auto-biography. I may have omitted some. The first one worked well, the second one was interesting but after that it started to wear thin.

I'm through the auto-biography now and they're all about to leave for Thailand. If they have to read the mysterious benefactor journals for clues, I'll go crazy.
 

archerjoe

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This is me reading the part where they first meet Mr. Lung:
:Jaw:

Bravo, Mr. Toltz, bravo!