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A Rising of the Lights
From the Booker-shortlisted author, an audacious comic lament for a world that no longer knows itself.
‘Brilliant, hilarious, eccentric and beautiful. A surfacing story unlike anything I’ve read. I need two copies of this book. One to keep on my shelf, and a sacrificial one so I can cut out paragraphs and frame them.’ Tim Minchin
‘The cure for loneliness causes loneliness. That’s the human condition.’
In a reeling world of fraudsters and hypnotists, sleep talkers and estranged twins, false alibis and second chances, Rusty Wilson is beset on all sides by mysteries. Why was his childhood decided by a throw of dice, why has his wife confessed to a lover, and why do his parents no longer wish to see him?
When Rusty loses his job to an AI system, Edwina, the mercurial friend of his youth, finds him a new role as an oracle to the young. But how can he advise anyone on what it means to be human when artificial consciousness appears within reach? If it’s all just one more con, it’s not clear who’s scamming who. Besides, should any of it matter to Rusty, when all he wants is for those he loves to love him back?
What holds a life together when everything is coming apart?
An audacious comic lament for a world that no longer knows itself, A Rising of the Lights traces Rusty’s descent – or perhaps his ascent – to the wonder of his true self.
'A wildly imaginative, deeply hilarious and surprisingly tender story of the paths life takes when you don’t take a life path. Morbid, insane, brilliant and packed with the kind of darkly funny philosophical insights that make sense of an increasingly terrifying, tech-dominated world.' Lexi Frieman, author of The Book of Ayn
‘Brilliant, hilarious, eccentric and beautiful. A surfacing story unlike anything I’ve read. I need two copies of this book. One to keep on my shelf, and a sacrificial one so I can cut out paragraphs and frame them.’ Tim Minchin
‘The cure for loneliness causes loneliness. That’s the human condition.’
In a reeling world of fraudsters and hypnotists, sleep talkers and estranged twins, false alibis and second chances, Rusty Wilson is beset on all sides by mysteries. Why was his childhood decided by a throw of dice, why has his wife confessed to a lover, and why do his parents no longer wish to see him?
When Rusty loses his job to an AI system, Edwina, the mercurial friend of his youth, finds him a new role as an oracle to the young. But how can he advise anyone on what it means to be human when artificial consciousness appears within reach? If it’s all just one more con, it’s not clear who’s scamming who. Besides, should any of it matter to Rusty, when all he wants is for those he loves to love him back?
What holds a life together when everything is coming apart?
An audacious comic lament for a world that no longer knows itself, A Rising of the Lights traces Rusty’s descent – or perhaps his ascent – to the wonder of his true self.
'A wildly imaginative, deeply hilarious and surprisingly tender story of the paths life takes when you don’t take a life path. Morbid, insane, brilliant and packed with the kind of darkly funny philosophical insights that make sense of an increasingly terrifying, tech-dominated world.' Lexi Frieman, author of The Book of Ayn
- GenresAudiobook
311 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2026
About the author
Steve Toltz
5 books1,144 followersSteve Toltz (born in 1972) is an Australian novelist.
Toltz graduated from the University of Newcastle, New South Wales, in 1994. Prior to his literary career, he lived in Montreal, Vancouver, New York, Barcelona, and Paris, variously working as a cameraman, telemarketer, security guard, private investigator, English teacher, and screenwriter.
A Fraction of the Whole, his first novel, was released in 2008 to widespread critical acclaim. It is a comic novel which tells the history of a family of Australian outcasts. The narration of the novel alternates between Jasper Dean, a philosophical, idealistic boy, who grows up throughout the novel and his father, Martin Dean, a philosopher and shut-in described at the start of the novel as "the most hated man in all of Australia". This is in contrast with Terry Dean, Jasper's uncle, whom Jasper describes as "the most beloved man in all of Australia". The novel spans the entirety of Martin's life and several years after (a range never specified in the text, but starting after World War II and ending in the early 2000s), and is set in Australia, Paris, and Thailand.
The novel has repeatedly been compared favorably to John Kennedy Toole's Pulitzer Prize winning novel A Confederacy of Dunces. A Fraction of the Whole was shortlisted for the 2008 Man Booker Prize and the 2008 Guardian First Book Award.
Toltz graduated from the University of Newcastle, New South Wales, in 1994. Prior to his literary career, he lived in Montreal, Vancouver, New York, Barcelona, and Paris, variously working as a cameraman, telemarketer, security guard, private investigator, English teacher, and screenwriter.
A Fraction of the Whole, his first novel, was released in 2008 to widespread critical acclaim. It is a comic novel which tells the history of a family of Australian outcasts. The narration of the novel alternates between Jasper Dean, a philosophical, idealistic boy, who grows up throughout the novel and his father, Martin Dean, a philosopher and shut-in described at the start of the novel as "the most hated man in all of Australia". This is in contrast with Terry Dean, Jasper's uncle, whom Jasper describes as "the most beloved man in all of Australia". The novel spans the entirety of Martin's life and several years after (a range never specified in the text, but starting after World War II and ending in the early 2000s), and is set in Australia, Paris, and Thailand.
The novel has repeatedly been compared favorably to John Kennedy Toole's Pulitzer Prize winning novel A Confederacy of Dunces. A Fraction of the Whole was shortlisted for the 2008 Man Booker Prize and the 2008 Guardian First Book Award.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
June 10, 2026
A comical fever dream, featuring an incredibly dysfunctional family.
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April 14, 2026Steve Toltz’s new novel sacrifices its story at the altar of the gag:
There’s an old rumour that Nikolai Gogol, the author of Dead Souls, cackled in his study deep into the night as he wrote his satire of imperialist Russia. Reading Steve Toltz, I imagine something similar: the writer snorting with laughter as each epigram types itself into being.
Toltz is often described as a satirist, but he is really a comedian. In his novels, hapless characters bumble through situations beyond their control. He portrays narcissists, misanthropes and oddballs with improbable dreams and cynical worldviews. His greatest trick is filling his novels with every personality type you’d desperately avoid at a party. They are, in short, great fun.
And yet I left Toltz’s new novel, A Rising of the Lights, battered and weary. His comic style, meant to dazzle with incisive wit, settles in as the novel’s default mode. Toltz sacrifices everything – social commentary, character development, the sentimental found in the absurd – at the altar of the gag.
Readers of Toltz’s 2007 debut A Fraction of the Whole know what to expect: wisecracking dialogue, weird dysfunctional families, eccentrics galore.
A Rising of the Lights begins with Rusty Wilson suffering an abrupt mid-life crisis. His childless marriage ends after his wife leaves him for an Uber driver. He loses his HR job in a government department to an AI efficiency scheme. And his divorced octogenarian parents Gordon and Sigrid, withering away in separate aged-care facilities, suddenly restrict Rusty’s visiting rights.
Alone, and suffering from a mysterious stomach ailment (the “rising of the lights” from which the novel borrows its title), Rusty suspects he may die soon. Why bother carrying on at all?
Like the passive Istvan from David Szalay’s Booker-winning Flesh, Rusty is “devoid of ambition”: he lets life happen to him. Forces intervene – his estranged twin sister, an old school friend, his parents – to drag him through life.
When Rusty becomes the career counsellor at a private school, he bombards captive students with pseudo-interpretations of philosophers and here the novel gestures towards a fear for the future. Rusty fires off typical “Toltzian” bizarro analogies: “Society is like a memory foam … I advised them not to live a life in order to narrate it … They’d need to accept being, at all times, a spiritual infant and a corpse-in-waiting.”
This humour is really a type of linguistic slapstick. Instead of banana peels and pratfalls, Toltz’s characters trip over their deliberately clumsy and humiliating worldviews. A Rising of the Lights arrives at that strange cultural juncture when artificial intelligence has stepped over the boundaries of science fiction and become a subject of contemporary realism. By way of its premise and targets, the novel suggests that it will reckon with the AI “jobpocalypse”, Australia’s aged-care system crisis, and the fever pitch rhetoric of polycrisis. The targets are all in his line of sight.
These domains are all worthy of critique, but they’re really just the comic stages upon which his characters perform. Toltz does have a good ear for one-liners, but delivered without tonal variation, trapped in a ceaseless vortex of wits, I wished that occasionally he would put all jokes aside.
While the novel skirts over other areas worthy of serious lampooning – elements that are already embedded in the story and its time – it is Toltz’s full-scale embrace of aphoristic chatter that leaves me worn out. On every page you can hear the author’s own laughter. But the jokes come so thick and fast that there’s hardly a moment to take a breath and wonder what we’re laughing about.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/cult...
There’s an old rumour that Nikolai Gogol, the author of Dead Souls, cackled in his study deep into the night as he wrote his satire of imperialist Russia. Reading Steve Toltz, I imagine something similar: the writer snorting with laughter as each epigram types itself into being.
Toltz is often described as a satirist, but he is really a comedian. In his novels, hapless characters bumble through situations beyond their control. He portrays narcissists, misanthropes and oddballs with improbable dreams and cynical worldviews. His greatest trick is filling his novels with every personality type you’d desperately avoid at a party. They are, in short, great fun.
And yet I left Toltz’s new novel, A Rising of the Lights, battered and weary. His comic style, meant to dazzle with incisive wit, settles in as the novel’s default mode. Toltz sacrifices everything – social commentary, character development, the sentimental found in the absurd – at the altar of the gag.
Readers of Toltz’s 2007 debut A Fraction of the Whole know what to expect: wisecracking dialogue, weird dysfunctional families, eccentrics galore.
A Rising of the Lights begins with Rusty Wilson suffering an abrupt mid-life crisis. His childless marriage ends after his wife leaves him for an Uber driver. He loses his HR job in a government department to an AI efficiency scheme. And his divorced octogenarian parents Gordon and Sigrid, withering away in separate aged-care facilities, suddenly restrict Rusty’s visiting rights.
Alone, and suffering from a mysterious stomach ailment (the “rising of the lights” from which the novel borrows its title), Rusty suspects he may die soon. Why bother carrying on at all?
Like the passive Istvan from David Szalay’s Booker-winning Flesh, Rusty is “devoid of ambition”: he lets life happen to him. Forces intervene – his estranged twin sister, an old school friend, his parents – to drag him through life.
When Rusty becomes the career counsellor at a private school, he bombards captive students with pseudo-interpretations of philosophers and here the novel gestures towards a fear for the future. Rusty fires off typical “Toltzian” bizarro analogies: “Society is like a memory foam … I advised them not to live a life in order to narrate it … They’d need to accept being, at all times, a spiritual infant and a corpse-in-waiting.”
This humour is really a type of linguistic slapstick. Instead of banana peels and pratfalls, Toltz’s characters trip over their deliberately clumsy and humiliating worldviews. A Rising of the Lights arrives at that strange cultural juncture when artificial intelligence has stepped over the boundaries of science fiction and become a subject of contemporary realism. By way of its premise and targets, the novel suggests that it will reckon with the AI “jobpocalypse”, Australia’s aged-care system crisis, and the fever pitch rhetoric of polycrisis. The targets are all in his line of sight.
These domains are all worthy of critique, but they’re really just the comic stages upon which his characters perform. Toltz does have a good ear for one-liners, but delivered without tonal variation, trapped in a ceaseless vortex of wits, I wished that occasionally he would put all jokes aside.
While the novel skirts over other areas worthy of serious lampooning – elements that are already embedded in the story and its time – it is Toltz’s full-scale embrace of aphoristic chatter that leaves me worn out. On every page you can hear the author’s own laughter. But the jokes come so thick and fast that there’s hardly a moment to take a breath and wonder what we’re laughing about.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/cult...
May 28, 2026
Love this writer, but the characters really are just so unlikeable 😔
April 29, 2026
The only reason I finished this book was that I was away, and didn’t bring a second book with me.
Reading this book was like taking a bad acid trip combined with being stoned,
It was lucid, depressing, occasionally funny, but overall depressing and pointless.
Not my style at all
Reading this book was like taking a bad acid trip combined with being stoned,
It was lucid, depressing, occasionally funny, but overall depressing and pointless.
Not my style at all
May 13, 2026
This book is one chosen for our Book Grove club discussion. I am somewhat uncertain about my reaction to it. There were parts I definitely connected with while others left me disengaged or confused.
I particularly liked the focus on ageing and how AI can work against the needs of humans as can governments who require adult children to care for aging parents even if they seem or are ill equipped to do so.
The concluding actions of Rusty’s parents shone a light on how much attention or empowerment is given to elderly individuals to decide when and how they wish to end their human existence.
I particularly liked the focus on ageing and how AI can work against the needs of humans as can governments who require adult children to care for aging parents even if they seem or are ill equipped to do so.
The concluding actions of Rusty’s parents shone a light on how much attention or empowerment is given to elderly individuals to decide when and how they wish to end their human existence.
May 11, 2026
A Rising of the Lights
Completely bonkers.
Started with huge promise. Very, very funny dialogue.
Then I started to question. Why so much introversion? Should I care?
Decided not to care.
But had to get to the end of this bonkers book. It would not beat me.
Wish it had.
Completely bonkers.
Started with huge promise. Very, very funny dialogue.
Then I started to question. Why so much introversion? Should I care?
Decided not to care.
But had to get to the end of this bonkers book. It would not beat me.
Wish it had.
June 17, 2026
3.5 stars rounded up to be generous.
It's more Steve Toltz as you know him, although I feel like his books have been getting less manic and more dark as they progress. A Fraction of the Whole is still my favourite, and I'd say this one is probably his weakest. I think it's also the shortest? Perhaps Steve is running out of steam, that's a bit what it feels like. He's still full of zingers, but they're not his best work. He's ageing as his protagonists are ageing, and perhaps he's tired and spent as they are tired and spent.
This one is a sequence of loosely connected farcical events covering many of his favourite themes like family, purpose, fitting in, examining life and trying to make the most of it. I'm totally on board with all of that and I'm happy for him to keep returning to the same well. There's still more material there and he still puts it all in a way that only he can, his wit is still very much on show even if it's toned down a bit. Where the last book reflected on the covid pandemic, this one mentions "AI" and while the author definitely knows his stuff, there's not really anything too insightful in this area. It's nice to have our modern times reflected back at us, but it didn't add much.
What was jarring was reading something that felt obviously Australian, not shying away from local references... only to trip on Americanisms like "closet", "flashlight", and one floor up being the "second floor". What the fuck Steve? It's so incongruous. Did I get the US-ified version or is he just writing like this now? Stop that.
Anyway, I was happy to read more of my favourite Australian author, but I hope he earns enough to go take a big holiday so he can come back with renewed vigour for the next one.
It's more Steve Toltz as you know him, although I feel like his books have been getting less manic and more dark as they progress. A Fraction of the Whole is still my favourite, and I'd say this one is probably his weakest. I think it's also the shortest? Perhaps Steve is running out of steam, that's a bit what it feels like. He's still full of zingers, but they're not his best work. He's ageing as his protagonists are ageing, and perhaps he's tired and spent as they are tired and spent.
This one is a sequence of loosely connected farcical events covering many of his favourite themes like family, purpose, fitting in, examining life and trying to make the most of it. I'm totally on board with all of that and I'm happy for him to keep returning to the same well. There's still more material there and he still puts it all in a way that only he can, his wit is still very much on show even if it's toned down a bit. Where the last book reflected on the covid pandemic, this one mentions "AI" and while the author definitely knows his stuff, there's not really anything too insightful in this area. It's nice to have our modern times reflected back at us, but it didn't add much.
What was jarring was reading something that felt obviously Australian, not shying away from local references... only to trip on Americanisms like "closet", "flashlight", and one floor up being the "second floor". What the fuck Steve? It's so incongruous. Did I get the US-ified version or is he just writing like this now? Stop that.
Anyway, I was happy to read more of my favourite Australian author, but I hope he earns enough to go take a big holiday so he can come back with renewed vigour for the next one.
May 18, 2026
Gritty Aussie story similar to Trent Dalton's writing.
May 1, 2026
3.75 stars
April 20, 2026
"Rusty. You'll always be the strangest person I know."
Steve Toltz. You'll always be the strangest person I don't know, and the strangest writer I've ever read. In a good way.
I'm a sucker for a weird book with edgy, unhinged characters that find themselves in absurd situations. And the characters are likeable.
You know what else I like? No forward, no acknowledgements, no author's note. Just the story. Yay.
4.5 STARS
Steve Toltz. You'll always be the strangest person I don't know, and the strangest writer I've ever read. In a good way.
I'm a sucker for a weird book with edgy, unhinged characters that find themselves in absurd situations. And the characters are likeable.
You know what else I like? No forward, no acknowledgements, no author's note. Just the story. Yay.
4.5 STARS
May 7, 2026
A big fan of Steve Toltz's books and am always happy to see another come out. Its a good sign for Australian publishing that his spiralling characters, with their deeply thought and scathingly humorous philosophical perceptions on the nature of life and society, (inherited and evolved mindsets which ultimately misalign them with the very society they want to be a part of, or at least understand, but only if it could meet them on their own terms and then somewhere along the way instead work out that they are, or find their way to being, a part of this gloriously varied humanity thing anyway, take a breath... that these kinds of character driven stories) can find a place on store shelves makes me happy.
June 18, 2026
I was eagerly anticipating this novel as I just adored A Fraction of the Whole and Leigh Sales, another Steve Toltz fan recommended this book on her podcast.
While this book has a lot of the features that I appreciated in A Fraction of the Whole - the clever writing, humour, quirky characters and chaotic scenarios - I just felt like this one didn't land so well. I felt like some of the humour was too silly or didn't make sense in the context - in some places I was just plain confused as to whether I was supposed to be getting a message or not. The chaos was off the charts and the characters were not as likeable as Jasper and his family and friends.
On the upside, I did have laugh out loud moments and I firmly believe that a laugh out loud when reading is a moment of pure joy. I could also relate to the theme that the world feels like a really dark place due to the unrelenting advance of AI.
3.5 stars rounded up to 4.
While this book has a lot of the features that I appreciated in A Fraction of the Whole - the clever writing, humour, quirky characters and chaotic scenarios - I just felt like this one didn't land so well. I felt like some of the humour was too silly or didn't make sense in the context - in some places I was just plain confused as to whether I was supposed to be getting a message or not. The chaos was off the charts and the characters were not as likeable as Jasper and his family and friends.
On the upside, I did have laugh out loud moments and I firmly believe that a laugh out loud when reading is a moment of pure joy. I could also relate to the theme that the world feels like a really dark place due to the unrelenting advance of AI.
3.5 stars rounded up to 4.
May 20, 2026
I mostly really enjoyed this book some very funny lines in it and absurd situations written hilariously. Rusty comes from a broken home… in a rather unusual way with the most eccentric couple of parents who are now both in nursing homes until they are not and Rusty and his estranged sister are required to look after them. Parents who they barely know. This comes at a time when everything has gone wrong in Rusty’s life, relationship, job both going down hill. Rusty then becomes reacquainted with some childhood friends who are all eccentric in their own ways.
Steve Toltz has a dark sense of humour which I loved and the hapless character of Rusty was well written. I did find the ending a bit far fetched but generally the novel told the stories of a unique bunch of misfits in an engaging and entertaining way.
Steve Toltz has a dark sense of humour which I loved and the hapless character of Rusty was well written. I did find the ending a bit far fetched but generally the novel told the stories of a unique bunch of misfits in an engaging and entertaining way.
June 8, 2026
Like all Toltz’s other works this too is a meditation on death but more contemporary and less fanciful than his other tomes. It’s funny and sad often at the same time whilst remaining relevant as a piece of its time.
I like this author very much and don’t want to give too much away with my commentary save for the fact that a dark wit permeates throughout and I know everybody will get a little chunk of empathy for at least one character. Maybe even more than one given the variety of experiences that they endure.
Give it a go and see too if you favour any character over another or are they all just detestable and loveable at the same time.
Certainly that’s how I found it …
I found it a few other things too but that will spoil it and I have no plans to ruin anyones sojourn into novel world.
A solid four stars.
I like this author very much and don’t want to give too much away with my commentary save for the fact that a dark wit permeates throughout and I know everybody will get a little chunk of empathy for at least one character. Maybe even more than one given the variety of experiences that they endure.
Give it a go and see too if you favour any character over another or are they all just detestable and loveable at the same time.
Certainly that’s how I found it …
I found it a few other things too but that will spoil it and I have no plans to ruin anyones sojourn into novel world.
A solid four stars.
June 23, 2026
I thoroughly enjoyed this read. Although it wore me in the strangest way. It was darkly funny but at times filled me with dread. Perhaps menacing is the right word?
The story centres around Rusty, a half orphan with a crumbling life. He had a twin sister who acquired custody of his dad at a young age, while he inherited his mother. At mid life he finds himself even more adrift than usual.
Shenanigans unfold. Including breakups, firings, karaoke crime coverups, an old friend turned love interest, sex atop a cursed buried bell, a secret labyrinth in a custom-built school, state enforced elder care, an AI deep fake, parental enemies hurtling together again.
It was a wacky ride. I like the idea that AI systems correct themselves but that humans don’t necessarily. I think Rusty did, kind of.
The story centres around Rusty, a half orphan with a crumbling life. He had a twin sister who acquired custody of his dad at a young age, while he inherited his mother. At mid life he finds himself even more adrift than usual.
Shenanigans unfold. Including breakups, firings, karaoke crime coverups, an old friend turned love interest, sex atop a cursed buried bell, a secret labyrinth in a custom-built school, state enforced elder care, an AI deep fake, parental enemies hurtling together again.
It was a wacky ride. I like the idea that AI systems correct themselves but that humans don’t necessarily. I think Rusty did, kind of.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 10, 2026
Bought at Sydney Writers’ festival and started reading immediately. And I laughed out loud in Surry Hills library and on public transport right from the beginning. I’d say it’s an amusing tale of a dysfunctional family centred on a mid 50s guy whose I don’t give a fuck attitude is escalated when his wife leaves him. The back story of his childhood is hilarious. I just managed to get a bit cooler on it towards the end when I really didn’t know what this book was ultimately saying. I hat a little hiatus nearing the end and sped read it to finish. Maybe not doing it justice…I thought it was comically clever but didn’t land me anywhere very different except he now has a life with an old friend he’s always been in love with probably. I don’t know…3.5 stars?
May 21, 2026
Funny, contemporary, sad and true all at once. We are sometimes so blind to our own minds. We long for connection but even in sex, we cannot escape realising that no one can share our thoughts and feelings. Now we have AI, hoping it would understand us. But nothing can rid of the feelings of jealousy, greed or dreams but…ourselves. Nothing seems to be worth while to sacrifice for anymore. Children can be decided by the roll of the dice. There is no value other than money value anymore. We might as well be AI.
June 3, 2026
I have to concede it has been sometime, if ever. I have actually laughed when reading the prologue.
There is no questioning ST's insightfulness and acerbic wit...however I did not enjoy this as much as Here Goes Nothing.
With characters that annoyed me was always going to impact my view of the book.
He befits the tragicomedy genre....not hard when a dysfunctional family is THE SUBJECT MATTER.
There is no questioning ST's insightfulness and acerbic wit...however I did not enjoy this as much as Here Goes Nothing.
With characters that annoyed me was always going to impact my view of the book.
He befits the tragicomedy genre....not hard when a dysfunctional family is THE SUBJECT MATTER.
June 17, 2026
I enjoy Toltz's sometimes vicious wit and his delight in playing with words and idioms. All of the characters are fun to follow, but Rusty, the main protagonist, oozes well-considered resignation.
As I got towards the end, I was struck by how well constructed the story is. Something that may have seemed like a diversion early in the book turns out to be the basis for a late plot trick.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book, but I still think Quicksand is his best novel.
As I got towards the end, I was struck by how well constructed the story is. Something that may have seemed like a diversion early in the book turns out to be the basis for a late plot trick.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book, but I still think Quicksand is his best novel.
June 1, 2026
Listened on audiobook: zany and funny, moments of tenderness amidst absurdity that’s always thoroughly grounded in Australian sensibility and humour. I loved it. It had the frenetic feeling of a “pantser” author throwing everything but the kitchen sink at the plot and characters, but I kinda liked that too.
May 4, 2026
Confusing, emotional, twisted, unhinged, sad, amusing, bizarre. My first Steve Toltz novel. My brain may need a rest before I read another! This was a book club choice…definitely got me out of my comfort zone.
June 20, 2026
2 people told me how hilarious this is but I really didn't find it funny and things constantly went wrong which I just found depressing. The character was kind of funny but not enough to get more than 50% through the book
June 26, 2026
This just dodged being on my DNF list, only because I had a morbid curiosity as to what would happen. Everyone in this story is so unlikeable and grating, it is kind of impressive how irritating they all are.
May 2, 2026
3.5 stars really. Weird and ok.
May 5, 2026
3.5 ⭐️
May 15, 2026
Everything that previous reviewers have commented on - quirky and oddball , one of the wackiest books i have read for a long time.
May 15, 2026
A funny-sad book about the inescapability of family, the ominous threat of AI, and the everyman quest for happiness.
May 19, 2026
*3.5 stars*
June 3, 2026
Couldn't get past my total dislike for Rusty.
June 6, 2026
I can’t put down a Steve Toltz book. Another good one.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews