Thursday, September 6, 2007

A Fraction of the Whole


The weak shall inherit the earth the slidey bastards and you want to know why? Because they don't care about anything but their own weakness and so they can crash, burn, wreck and ruin like nobody's business. They really are terrible to have around.

A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz spells all this out very succinctly. We have Martin our fifth-business who instigates all sorts of things in his slidey weak way. Like what? Like getting his brother not just into trouble but into crime because HE, Martin, didn't want to get beat up in a schoolyard fight.

How so you ask? Pretty easy when you're a weak bastard. Martin was in trouble with the bullies and so told his avid little brother, a terrific sportsman, a phenomenal athlete, that the bullies were CHEATERS. Well. Gasoline to a bonfire. The little brother goes on to beat up the bullies and the bullies stab him in the leg, ending his sports career. Then they tell him that so long as he joins their lives of crime they won't kill Martin (big loss if you ask me but I'm not the little brother in this one.) The brother, Terry, takes to crime like fish to algae and goes on cleaning the world of cheaters.

Terry, you see, believes in something. Martin not so much. So he goes on wreaking havoc by trying to slide out of things left right and centre.

The Martin story is very funny and I'd tell you more but I'm not finished yet. But it's pretty clear, weak wins. Well, maybe the weak don't WIN but they don't seem to get hurt or roughed up much either so we might as well call it winning.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

The weak shall inherit the earth? It sounds more like the clever shameless manipulators are inheriting the earth. Martin the weakling doesn't need to be strong to get his way: he just needs to be smart and amoral.

Thus we need religion. The cold world gives no credits for morals.

Sounds like a fun book.