A Fraction of the Whole

           If you flip through the novel A fraction of the Whole, you see that it is about a young boy named Martin Dean and his bond with his criminal brother Terry, and both of their journeys through life. However, when you read it thoroughly, you see that in reality it's about Jasper, Martin's son, and him hearing the stories of his fathers and uncles lives. Through illness, injury, fights, murders, friendships and murders, Jasper hears it all. " He talked and talked until eight in the morning," says Jasper when hearing the stories of his fathers lifetime. However, this is just what I have read so far, only 131 pages into the 561 page book, and I know many more crazy characters and outstanding plot twist will come. However, something I found interesting about this book is it tells you instantaneously that Martin Dean is dead. To express this, the author Steve Toltz announces from Jaspers point of view, that his fathers body will never be found.
         
     This is interesting, because the majority of the pages i've read so far are about and from the perspective of Martin. The first couple pages are from Jasper, but when he asks about Martins past, it immediately turns around. I think it's cool that when it's about Martin, it's from his point of view, so it's like he's talking to you, and you almost forget that he's speaking to his son. When he finally says the name Jasper when declaring an important point of his life, you just say "oh, yeah. I forgot."
    
      The plot is as crazy and interesting as the writing technique and Toltz's creativity. When Martin was 4, he fell into a 4 year coma, waking when he was 8, to find out about his little brother, Terry. As they grew up, Terry turns from a sports- fanatic and local celebrity to a young criminal, due to a leg injury and under the influence of Martin's and Terry's good friend Harry, who they met in their town's prison. Despite Harry's good advice of a low-profile for survival in the criminal world, Terry because a wanted murderer by the age of 20. This entire time Martin is struggling with first being a cripple, then generally disliked and though of as ugly, and eventually as just with being the brother of a wanted murderer.


      The whole time, you know he's gonna die.
What I find so weird about this is that at first, your waiting for any sign of Martin's death to be visible. Obviously it'd have to happen after Jasper Dean was born, but your still on the look out. But by the time you figure out it's way to early to see any sign, your used to it. As you forget that this book is about Jasper as well as his father, you forget that Martin will die. And I'm really anxious to figure it out. This book is giving me a single part of a puzzle and leaving me to fit together all the pieces of Martin Dean's life and death.