Rating: 
Summary: Unpolished
Review: Zadie Smith's book "White Teeth" reminded me of Hanif Kureishi and his works, "My Beautiful Launderette" and "Buddha in Suburbia." Smith, like Kureishi, finds the humor and evokes the pathos from the modern-day immigrant's experience in England. Her characters, like Kureishi's, are an eclectic mix of East and West, and play out the mingling of cultures in their character arcs.Smith's imagination runs amok in a pleasant way; in the book she features a sham Islamic fundamentalist group, an absurd genetic engineering project, an overeager suburban middle-class family, and Jehovah's Witnesses. The characters surf their way through these groups and their fantastic conflicts as a response to their inner, emotional lives rather out of any political or ideological conviction, which provides the comedy: ridiculously exaggerated situations stocked with serious and emotionally afflicted characters. Smith's prose is crisp and utterly descriptive. At times, it can be moving or tense. However, despite Smith's characters, the comedy, and her descriptive skills, the book is disappointing. The characters sacrifice consistency for dynamism. The plot skittles about like a flock of chickens on a frozen lake. The quality of the book varies; the first part feels like the work of a novice; the middle, the work of an experienced professional novelist; the last feels rushed, as if prodded by a deadline and left unrevised. Not bad for a first book. Considering the popularity of "White Teeth," we'll likely soon see more work by Zadie Smith, no doubt more polished.
Rating: 
Summary: Embarrassingly bad
Review: WHITE TEETH's problem is less its story than Ms Smith's style, which reminded me immediately of Douglas Adams. But while the late Adams's constant authorial presence, leaning over the reader's shoulder to shoot acute observations at his characters, their plight or just plain LIFE, was perfect for his offbeat genre fiction, it is immediately grating in WHITE TEETH. The author lacks the wit (and, perhaps, life experience?) to make that style work, and it sits poorly with the suburban banality she seeks to ground the characters in. Frantically page-turning to see when Marvin the Paranoid Android showed up, I bailed at ~p.100, with no interest in the characters whatsoever.
Rating: 
Summary: A Powerful Voice for the Young
Review: I read Zadie Smith's WHITE TEETH because my 17-yr old English granddaughter had found it "inspiring" and I was curious as to why she found it so. I have not discussed this with her, nor can I guess, offhandedly, just what struck her about this first novel by a young, black, Oxbridge woman. But I would venture to say that Smith's voice was clearest and most poignant in her handling of the young generation. Characters such as Irie, Millat, Majid and Joshua would have been brilliantly familiar to her. Familiar, perhaps, not in detail, but familiar, certainly, in all their anxieties and frustrations, whether at school or at home, and in their language and relationship to one another. How does Smith handle this complex problem of becoming oneself? She becomes their "Lenny Bruce." With her insistent foul language, and insistence that everything should be brought out into the open, she has done in her novel, what Lenny Bruce tried to do in his comedy shows - rid them of their fears of offending society. Of being in the wrong. Of allowing words to become charged with prejudice and "dark" associations. Of being overwhelmed by these associations. In short, of being overwhelmed by society. Hers is a powerful voice for the young. It is a bringing together. And one hopes that her insights remain clear.
Rating:
Summary: Epic!
Review: I am so glad I read this book. It spans generations in a way that is breathtaking. Very insightful and thought provoking, it is the best book I've read this year . Don't pass this one up!
Rating:
Summary: Huge Disappointment
Review: There was a lot of hype about this book and I sat down with it looking for an intelligent, absorbing, old-fashioned good read. Instead, I found a horribly over-written book about people and places that I could not warm up to no matter how I tried.
The world in this book is an ugly, lawless place filled with characters that become less and less endearing as the book goes on. I was looking forward to the ending as I'd heard that everything came together, but it did not in any meaningful fashion, and I was so relieved to finally finish it.
Rating:
Summary: Worth Reading
Review: Smith does a great job with her characters, its hard to believe this is her first novel. She is very wise for her age. We read this book for my book club and it offered us a lot of interesting discussion, which is an accomplishment since we have been meeting close to 10 years now. My only criticism is that she goes into detail on some characters that never amount to anything in the book, making the book a bit longer than needed. Also, like most modern novels, it was short on plot. However, I did still enjoy it and will definately read her next book.
Rating:
Summary: Good Read, Good Characters
Review: Very funny sketches of (near) contemporary British life. Deep characters, appealing plot. But WHY has it been 'translated' (or whatever the term is) for American readers? The British don't talk in terms of 'traffic circles' (roundabouts) or '182 pounds' (13 stone), and yet some classic Brit-speak ('fruit machine', which means 'slot machine' and not 'juice press') has been left untouched. Highly recommended, but in the interests of cultural integrity buy the original Brit-version.
Rating:
Summary: BIG book for a steadfast reader....
Review: A (too) long but humorous book about the bizarre and sometimes slightly tragic evolutions that families go through when they are adapting to a new/different cultures. This is Smith's first novel and it is often very witty. The book covers the current goings on between and with Samad Iqbal (a screwy Bengali) and Archie Jones (a working class Brit) - who have been friends for decades (as a result of a bizarre military experience). Their wives, Clara (a wild Jamaican woman who was beautiful but had all her teeth knocked out as a girl), and Alsana (who is basically angry all the time) are equally funny and odd. The lives of these two families and in particular their children - are the threads that tie the book together. Smith manages to cover, through her characters discussions, every sort of issue imaginable: race, religion, fate, teenage angst, pregnancy, etc. Her characters are all complex and deftly developed. And since they are complicated (realistic) they are not all particularly likable. This was a fun book for me, living in a Bengali culture I could laugh and nod whenever Samad did something really "Bengali". Some of Smith's best writing is in the dialogues and conversations. It is a big book and should only be tackled if you are a steadfast reader.
Rating: 
Summary: Incredibly ambitious, but succeeds brilliantly
Review: This book tries to tackle so many things, but really it is about the English immigrant experience, the inexorable pull of place, and the burden of family history. Her writing reminded me a lot of John Irving's, and certainly was as funny as some of his best work. I laughed out loud many times.
Rating: 
Summary: Just not that good
Review: I am really having a hard time getting through this book. It is not holding my interest in the way a(ny)book usually does. I'm reading it for my book club and finding it a struggle. But I read four other books this weekend that had me gripped tight! i can't relate or get into the characters. I don't understand why they do what they are doing. and sometimes i think the author's language, sentence construction and word choices are getting in the way of telling the story. with this book, i have the same frustrated feeling i sometimes get when i don't quite understand what makes some modern art so "good."
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