Rating: 
Summary: Grudging Respect
Review: This massive first novel is both wildly ambitious and desperately in need of the hand of an assured editor. Smith certainly isn't afraid to stir such minor topics as race, colonialism, class, gender, culture, religion, fate, sexuality, history and science into her melting pot examination of identity, and as such, it's one of those books whose plot cannot be succinctly outlined. In the broadest possible terms, the book revolves around Archie and Samad, an Englishman and Bangladeshi respectively, who are in the same tank unit in World War II. After spending a goodly chunk of time on their wartime experience, the book covers both the next 45 years of their lives (lengthy stops are made in the late '60s, '70s, and '80s), and with the past (flashbacks are made to mid-19th century India and Jamaica). The true protagonists are Archie's daughter Irie, and Samad's twin sons, Millat and Majid. And the central theme of the book is their struggle for identity, which is sometimes unconscious and sometimes very purposeful.One of the book's main flaws is that in addition to these five major characters, there are the mothers of each, and a veritable wagonload of important supporting characters, including a third family that appears well into the book. There's a lot of coming and going and coming, and on and on as characters assume central importance for ten pages, only to disappear for two-hundred. Smith is trying to weave a very complicated web (many critics call this aspect of the book "Dickensian"), but in doing so, the transitions become awfully jarring, and very often, annoying. A second major issue is that the characters are all types of one sort or another. Smith sets them in motion in order to comment on her grab-bag of issues, but never quite gives them enough individuality or humanity. The good thing is that she does manage to create a unique voice for each . Like Martin Amis, she's has an excellent ear for the rhythms of conversation and the specific vernaculars of both time and group. Similarly, she likes to play with language in a way that is both refreshing and assured. On the whole, I liked this book-albeit grudgingly. Smith has taken a kind of "throw everything except the kitchen sink at the wall and see what sticks" approach, leaving no major issue unturned in her attempt to leave her mark on the reader. This means that a lot of the threads never lead anywhere, and thus the overall effect is not as strong as she might have intended. A good editor might have been able to pare some elements back a bit, allowing others to blossom more. Similarly, an editor ought to have helped with some of the many inaccuracies that crop up (two random examples: some of the portrayal of the Jehovah's Witnesses is factually incorrect, as are some of the details of Ryan's scooter). Still, as a portrait of multicultural London over the years and how the concept of "being British" has evolved in that time, it works quite well. And its questions about identity and belonging are applicable to immigrants coming to any Western country. The book was made into a 4-hour BBC miniseries, which has still never been released on video.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and Enlightening
Review: I enjoyed this book, but I will be the first the admit that it is not for the "light reader." Being an American, it took me a minute to get used to the English writer's style and use of language. Once I got into her flow, it was smooth sailing. This book is appropriately funny and poignant while remaining totally human. I found myself laughing out loud at times. Each character is developed beautifully and is deliciously flawed. I cared about what happened to each of them in spite of themselves. I love the way the author allowed them to evolve, progress, regress, or just simply be- according to their current circumstance. The main thing I gleaned from this book is that the basic elements of the human condition are the same across cultures, races and classes.
Rating: 
Summary: Stunning debut novel by a very young author
Review: That Zadie Smith was only 23 when White Teeth was published amazes me as much as the youth of Matt Damon and Ben Afleck when they wrote Good Will Hunting.
How can she write a sprawling epic of immigrants, mixed-race, mixed-religion, class-based, exploration of society novel that begins with the youth of one generation and ends with the maturation of the next generation - at her age, I mean? At 23, I was so clueless that I was dangerous. Not Zadie Smith, no sirree.
I'm not even going to try to name the multiple characters and their roles. Just read this book, and then keep an eye on the author. She's no flash in the pan.
Rating:
Summary: Best Fiction I've read in a long time
Review: Funny, tragic, hysterical, theoretical, destined randomness and yet every word made me nod my head like it was my true story. The absurdity only made it realer. The most non-fiction fiction novel I've read in a long time. And this is her first novel?
Rating:
Summary: A delightful ride on a post-modernist roller-coaster
Review: A wonderfully hilarious look at two generations of two families in modern Britain. After divorcing his first wife, simple, dependable, white-bread Archibald Jones marries a half-black Jamaican woman and renews his acquaintance with Samad Iqbal, his old war buddy. Archie and Clara have a daughter, Irie, an intelligent, ambitious girl who nevertheless finds herself a social outcast. The Iqbals, émigrés from Bangladesh, (formerly Bengal), suffer from a serious case of culture clash, which lends this book much of its satiric bite. Samad wishes to preserve his proud Bengali heritage and pass it on to his twin sons, Millat and Magid, but finds his efforts thwarted by the corrupting power of North London society. None of these people really fit in, and their efforts to pull through anyway make us want to cheer them on despite the silliness and hypocrisy we see in them. Enough family history is spelled out to make us realize how much each of these people are programmed by attitudes and events that held sway before they were even born. Some of it seems ludicrous, much of it is irrational, but being the past, it can't be escaped. Do we even have choices, or are our lives predetermined by accident of birth? This novel asks us to examine the question of how the individual fits into society, and at what point our own inner need to express our individuality (as well as our heritage) becomes a detriment - not only to society, but to ourselves because of society's reaction to us. With the introduction of the super-mouse, a product of modern genetic engineering, Smith seems to be championing (or is she skewering?) the unpopular notion that only through greater uniformity can we ever hope to overcome mankind's seemingly innate tendency to hate and fear anyone who seems different - that if disappearance is the price one pays for assimilation, then let's pay up and before even one more child grows up hating herself because she doesn't look like the girls in the magazines. A delightful ride on a post-modernist roller-coaster, with memorable characters, delicious dialogue, and plenty of serious points to make. This book is a must-read for intellectual young women who felt they weren't popular in school, but many conservative white Anglo-Saxon males will wonder what all the fuss is about.
Rating: 
Summary: Poetry of the Mouth
Review: While reading Zadie Smith's White Teeth, I was continually trying to answer the question, "Why did Smith title this book White Teeth?" Finally on page 379, I found the key. Describing the inner life of Irie Smith, author Smith writes: "Despite opting for a life of dentistry, she had not yet lost all of the poetry in her soul, that is, she could still have the odd Proustian moment, note layers upon layers, though she often experienced them in periodontal terms." With this clue, I then looked backward and forward in the book to catch the poetry, discern the Proustian moments, and observe the "layers upon layers." Smith has indeed written a novel that is multicultural, multigenerational, multi-religious, multi-racial, and mutli-layered. She makes much of the concept of fundamentals and fundamentalism. It is a condition that afflicts many of her characters and makes them headstrong, with narrow visions. These characters are so completely wrapped up in their (pick one) religion, family history, cult, cultural background, private philosophy that they are blind to the reality of their lives. They miss the benefits of diversity, cannot recognize the layers of experience, and anguish over their failures. Irie Smith, by the novel's end, has broken from this mind set and has experienced the poetry of life. There is depth here, but whatever meaning, whatever thoughtful statement about modern life Smith might be making - these were largely lost to me because of the absurdity of characters and plot. Don't get me wrong; I whipped through the book because I enjoyed it. But at the end, I was left feeling like I do after a T.C. Boyle read: cynically amused. I do not doubt that this is a valid - perhaps inevitable - reaction to our world, which, it seems, becomes increasingly polarized and viewed in simple shades of black and white. Keeping poetry in the soul is difficult. Bravo to Smith for this book. She is sure to have a long and important career as a thoughtful chronicler of the chaos we create.
Rating: 
Summary: Grinding (my) teeth (would be more enjoyable)
Review: This book focuses on too many characters with too little development of any of them. I completed it without caring what happened to the multitude of people I'd been introduced to. It had religious, cultural and racial tones that were too diffuse to prove anything. It included two May/December convenience marriages; Muslim extremist vs. agnostic/buddist vs. born-again Christian extremists; stereotypical rejection of all that is East or West--destiny vs. scientific intervention; and racial undertones that were off base at best. An implausible and meddling "perfect" family attempts to come in half way through the book and fix the poor mixed up lower classes who are too ignorant to take care of themselves. To some, this apparently makes for a 4 1/2 star story. If you still feel a need to read it, check it out at the library and make sure you don't have overdue fines--it isn't worth it.
Rating:
Summary: ThisIsOneOfTheBestBooksI'veEverReadAndIReadALot
Review: I loved this book, it was funny, heartwarming, and wonderfully inventive. Zadie Smith has this amazing way of creating very distinct and interesting characters, with surprizingly vibrant lives. I especially like the way she can take a mundane detail (like a man recieving letters from someone he barely even knows) and make it mystical. I think that everyone who loves books should read this one, it is absolutely lovely.
Rating:
Summary: Humor and so much more
Review: White teeth is an excellent novel, mixing humor with a variety of underlying issues in society today. In many ways it reminds me of works by Nick Hornby, but achieving significantly more depth. I lived in London for several years and found the fears of both immigrant and native residents refreshingly realistic in the way they are portrayed in the book. A cultural melting pot is often held up as the achievement of the modern age, where we trancend national and cultural boundaries. But as Smith illustrates so well, it is not the intellectual escaping to the leafy suburbs who have to deal with the issues of living the ideal, but real people like Archie and Samad. The book explores a great deal of heavy subject matter, but does so in a cloak of comic prose, which makes it no only palatable but hugely enjoyable. One reviewer gives this novel one star based on factual inaccuracies about India and Jamaica, he may well be right. However I think he misses the point, this is a book about people and relationships not places. The issues dealt with are very real for millions of people and the book is factual in it's account of how ordinary people struggle to deal with them as they go about their lives. White Teeth has had a great deal of publicity and hype since it's publication. Often this predjudices me against books or movies, but in this case I agree with the hype and can only recommend you read it.
Rating:
Summary: Read It Or...
Review: You'll be very sorry and miss out on a great book. There is such an amazing cast of characters in this book that I have begun to think of them as acquaintices rather than characters, and I have to constantly stop myself from referring to "You know, that waiter we met... Oh yeah, you didn't read that book. Never mind." It is just an incredible web of well fleshed-out characters that are actually connected by a cohesive story.
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