Rating: 
Summary: Quirky, eclectic and fabulous
Review: Although White Teeth has been somewhat forgotten behind a haze of media glitter and hype, this book demands attention simply as a quirky and quite brilliant first novel. Archie Jones and Samad Iqbal forge an enduring friendship over an extended period of cowardice during World War Two, and when they both begin families late in life, their respective children Irie, and Magid and Millat become intertwined in the melting pot that is North London. Add in the Chalfens, an English family with a righteous, alomost (benevolently) colonial temperament, and this fiery mix of personalities provides the crux for Smith's imaginative exploration of prejudice, personal and cross cultural relationships, scientific experimentation and religious fundamentalism. The subplots in the novel are similarly engrossing, with enough eccentric characters to fuel several novels. To mention just a few without spoiling the story: Millat wavers between a fundamentalist Islamic sect whose initials spell KEVIN and his natural tendency toward the role of neighbourhood Godfather; Alsana, Samad's wife, earns money by making fetish outfits; and Irie finishes off her schooling with her grandmother, a vehement Jehovah's witness. The only criticism I would make of this book is that in seeking to explore so many "big issues", Smith inevitably overreaches the constraint provided by her 462 pages. However, Smith readily concedes that her work does contain flaws, impressing that, "If I thought it was the best book I could write, that would be incredibly depressing." Another book, even better than White Teeth? I'll look forward to reading that.
Rating: 
Summary: A tedious disappointment
Review: I became interested in reading this book after reading many wonderful reviews. After having read it, I must say I was disappointed. The beginning of the book had me hooked, but I had to force myself to finish it. The writing is superb, the characters are very colorful and interesting, but the story just didn't interest me. The book is about three main families: the Joneses( English father, Jamaican mother, one daughter), the Iqbals ( Bengalis, mother and father, twin sons) and the Chalfens (English, mother and father and four sons). It deals with immigrants trying to assimilate, cultural differences, family conflicts, racial issues, religious issues. Too much going on! I also was let down by the ending.
Rating: 
Summary: the next brit "sleeper" movie?
Review: Without knowing the age of the author (I didn't read ANY reviews), I considered it a well written piece of modern work, a bit like a soap with "bite"- sorry. Amazing for such a young writer, great visualization, good plot twists(& knots),an expressive feel for cultural identity-with sympathetic handling, would be good fare for the big (or in series) or small screen.
Rating:
Summary: Great Story, Unique Presentation
Review: Some have noted that Smith's novel introduces a vibrant character only to disappoint the reader by switching suddenly to another character for a chapter or so. They would apparently desire a novel focusing solely on the Chalfens, Archie, or the Iqbals. What is lost in character focus, however, is more than made up for by the novel's fascinating chain of events. Ironically, this achieves its purpose --- to demonstrate what happens when the worlds of these vibrant and Antipodean characters collide.
Rating:
Summary: Cultural clash in a British salad bowl
Review: This is an interesting, complex, informative, and often highly amusing novel. Its rich allusions to the historical foundations of various cultural prejudices represented by the diverse disapora of Britain's colonies residing in London is depicted in an insightful, characteristically wry, sardonic, English manner. Satire coupled with trully wise insights about human interactions and about how the past often shackles people and prevents them from savoring the present makes this a substantive as well as entertaining work. Interwoven is a intricate and clever plot -- the combination is pretty noteworthy for a 24 year old author; she reflects a maturity beyond her years. I found myself often reminded of Hanif Kureishi's "My Beautiful Laundrette". Zadie Smith, like Kureishi, notes how immigration has resulted in a British society that is more like a salad bowl than a melting pot. Americans who have angst about our own failures in fully integrating people of diverse cultures as one society will find this parallel experience particularly interesting.
Rating:
Summary: Stunning, and funny
Review: I read great reviews, so I was hesitant to start this book for fear of being disappointed. What a pleasant surprise to find the writing of a high caliber, with interesting and unlikely characters. At times the historical bits drag, but for the most part I found the plot to move nicely. I was surprised by the ending, expecting it to be more dramatic, but I still liked it. A great big substantial read.
Rating: 
Summary: Who cares about these people?????
Review: Zadie Smith's debut novel was chosen as the first novel for my fledgling book club. I did not choose the book, but was heartened by the reviews and descriptions I found. This seemed like a book I would enjoy--very meaty and full of interesting people. Normally able to zip through a novel, I had to force myself to finish this the day before our club met to discuss it. I asked myself over and over, "When will I get into this book?", and by page 360, I finally found my answer: "NEVER!". I enjoy a character driven novel, and although this appears to be a character study, it disapppoints on several levels. First, it introduces characters and never follows up with them. For example, Alsana, Samad's wife--she had the potential to be an interesting character, and I enjoyed reading about her in the beginning when she was pregnant, but later in the story, she seemed wooden and flat. So vibrant in the beginning, and seemingly so easy to understand, her later actions and motivations are a mystery to me. Clara is another example of woeful neglect; she is introduced as an amazing character, and as the book progresses, she is merely part of the scenery. Second, it introduces characters and spends TOO MUCH time on them. Samad is a character that got a lot of space in the book, but didn't contribute much to the overall appeal of the story. The more I knew about him, the less I cared about him. His most intersting facet was his obsession with the twins' music teacher, and that was over in the first half of the book. Finally, I think the ending was rather poor. I enjoy an ending where the entire plot comes together, and where all the characters left dangling earlier on fall into place. I believe this was Ms. Smith's intent, however, she fell a bit short. I found myself having to go back and LOOK UP who these people were. I did not have the A-HA moment when I saw the big picture. It was more like, "Oh, I guess that was why I had to slog through 50 pages of that whole WWII thing...." Although Ms. Smith uses a lot of interesting vocabulary, and tries to spin a tale that captivates and intrigues, I found that I just didn't care enough about the people she emphasized, and found myself wishing to know better the people she swept under the rug. In the end, not worth the time or effort it takes to plow through this tome.
Rating:
Summary: Thoughts on White Teeth by Byron Caal
Review: White Teeth, by Zadie Smith, is undoubtedly a triumphant debut for this extraordinary talented writer who takes on big themes like race, gender, and culture. Although contemporary life has brought at least a sociological blending of races and ethnicity, blending of genes for humans remains as sadly colonial as ever. "If you can divide reality inexhaustibly into parts," Smith writes after the twins try to make peace between their ideologies, "the result is insupportable paradox. You are always still, you move nowhere, and there is no progress. But multiplicity is no illusion. Nor Is the speed with which those in the simmering melting pot are dashing towards it...the brothers will race towards the future only to find they more and more eloquently express their past, that place where they have just bee. Because this is the other thing about immigrants ('fugees, émigrés, travelers): they cannot escape their history any more than you yourself can lose your shadow." White Teeth celebrates the chaff of humanity, the Joneses and Iqbals of any land. Smith has a lot to say about threats to ethnicity, but her real weapon is on the way the she says these things. Her true power lies really on the way that she says anything. From time to time it seems as if she will not progress on the way that she is telling an anecdote, but in the end the characters seem to advance towards infinite destinies. Not everything works well throughout the novel though. Some things are unappealing to the story. Yet even these things manage not to compromise the achievement of such a wonderful novel.
Rating:
Summary: How White Are Your Teeth
Review: Does anyone ever wonder about his or her own teeth? As a baby you didn't have teeth, but as you start growing up teeth begin to appear and soon after they fall out again. As an adolescent you start to grow in your permanent set of teeth. Of course teeth are white. But do teeth stay white all through out your life? I'm pretty sure factors may influence the color of one's teeth...smoking, drinking coffee, not drinking enough calcium could be a few. Basically, as life goes on, so do your teeth. Your teeth now do not appear as they did ten years ago, but does anything stay the same for that long of a time? Cars change styles, not to mention clothing. Most importantly people change within time. A person's viewpoint changes dramatically over a period of time. As a young person, one's mind is not yet developed and their kind of thinking is basic. As we grow up we learn many things about society, culture, and especially, ourselves. Some may not see it, but teeth and identity come hand in hand. In the book White Teeth, Zadie Smith tells a story of two families struggling to make the best lives for their children. As most children, all of them grow up searching for their own identity. Millat and Magid, twins of Bangladeshi immigrants Samad and Alsana, grow up with the companionship of Irie, daughter of Archie and Clara Bowden. Samad sends one of his twins, Magid, back to Bangladesh in order to save him from the corruption of Western civilization. Millat, the other twin that stays behind, becomes much of a rebel in his neighborhood. Much of his activities includes smoking marijuana, causing havoc, and having promiscuous sex. Above all he becomes very involved with a Muslim activist group. Irie, on the other hand, goes through many changes in the novel. She grows up struggling with feelings of inadequacy brought on by her multicultural background being that of English and Jamaican. The pressures of Western civilization cause her to try to straighten her natural, curly Jamaican hair. When Magid comes back from Bangladesh, it is odd that he is more English than Muslim. Zadie Smith allows us to step in these children's lives and follow with them the search for their own identity. Being brought up from different cultures in a foreign land allows these children to be strong-minded and unbiased. Smith has portrayed their lives in a way that others can seem to relate. As stated in the beginning, teeth change over time. We see in this novel that the lives of Millat, Magid, and Irie change over time also. This novel helps us realize that a child's life is a very dramatic one, and sometimes taken for granted.
Rating: 
Summary: overwritten, oversold
Review: The writing of a procosious child trying to impress. Condescending both to the reader and to her own characters.
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