A Fraction of the Whole is a grandiose saga of the Dean family, starting and ending in Australia but ranging to Paris and Thailand with unprobable situations every few pages but anchored in the outsized and definitely out-of-the-norm personalities of the narrator’s father and uncle. I thought the first part (based in Australia) was brilliant. The second part (based in Paris) seemed more forced, and he got a few details wrong. The last part, back in Australia with a little Thailand detour, is also pretty good so don’t get discouraged in the middle. It is a very long book.
A wonderful vacation book: you’ll want to read it in long installments so you can stay with the complicated story.
