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Written by 
- Format: Hardcover, 544 pages
- Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
- On Sale: February 12, 2008
- Price: $24.95
- ISBN: 978-0-385-52172-7 (0-385-52172-3)
about this book
Most of his life, Jasper Dean couldn’t decide whether to pity, hate, love, or murder his certifiably paranoid father, Martin, a man who overanalyzed anything and everything and imparted his self-garnered wisdom to his only son. But now that Martin is dead, Jasper can fully reflect on the man who raised him in intellectual captivity, and what he realizes is that, for all its lunacy, theirs was a grand adventure.
As he recollects the events that led to his father’s demise, Jasper recounts a boyhood of outrageous schemes and shocking discoveries--about his infamous outlaw uncle Terry, his mysteriously absent European mother, and Martin’s constant losing battle to make a lasting mark on the world he so disdains. It’s a story that takes them from the Australian bush to the cafes of bohemian Paris, from the Thai jungle to strip clubs, asylums, labyrinths, and criminal lairs, and from the highs of first love to the lows of failed ambition. The result is a rollicking rollercoaster ride from obscurity to infamy, and the moving, memorable story of a father and son whose spiritual symmetry transcends all their many shortcomings.
Praise for A FRACTION OF THE WHOLE:
“This is not a book to be read so much as an experience to be wallowed in. Mr. Toltz's merry chaos--a mix of metaphysical inquiry, ribald jokes, freakish occurrences and verbal dynamite booming across the page--deserves a place next to A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES in a category that might be called the undergraduate ecstatic.”
--THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
