A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz
Published 2008 · 530 pages · 132,500 words · about 9 hours at an average pace · Literary Fiction, Satire & Humor
How hard is A Fraction of the Whole to read?
A Fraction of the Whole scores 51 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 42 out of 100
- Witty Australian voice with philosophical vocabulary.
- Sentence structure: 45 out of 100
- Long, digressive sentences matching narrator's mind.
- Abstraction: 55 out of 100
- Philosophical about fate, Australia, and family legacy.
- Information density: 55 out of 100
- Sprawling novel dense with ideas and incident.
- Narrative indirection: 50 out of 100
- Multiple narrators reconstruct family saga.
- Symbolic density: 50 out of 100
- Australia, the labyrinth, family destiny carry weight.
- Ironic distance: 55 out of 100
- Toltz's comedy operates through sustained ironic voice.
- Resolution withholding: 50 out of 100
- Family saga concludes but questions of legacy remain.
- Structural complexity: 55 out of 100
- Multiple generations and narrators across sprawling narrative.
How A Fraction of the Whole is regarded
A Fraction of the Whole holds a literary regard score of 58 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.