Rating: 
Summary: I loved it, one of my faves
Review: This novel reminded frequently in the beginning as something John Irving might write if he were a little more intelligent and a little less story-driven. All of his themes are there: lust, family, how our past actions forever haunt us, and how time and distance affect our relationships. I initially had very mixed feelings about this book. I began it over Christmas vacation and found the first chapter very intelligent and intriguing, and then my interest slagged a little for the next one hundred pages or so. I found it a little above average, and that was all. But I figured it hadn't been given such good reviews for nothing, and continued. I'm so glad I did. Every evening I read twenty pages or so, and every morning I wake up praying that by some miracle two hundred pages have been tacked on; I am just that engrossed. Never before have I actually not wanted a novel to end. I'm even tempted to go back and read the initial chapters again, hoping that my newfound love for the story will bring insight to what I may have missed before. Other reviewers have said that the book left them wanting more. I feel the same, only in a different sense: write on, Zadie!! (And did anyone else notice that the writing style of the reviewer who disliked 'White Teeth' and praised super-market circulations is ironically similar to that of Zadie Smith's?)
Rating:
Summary: One of the best of 2000
Review: Reading White Teeth is one of my TOP 10 list of what I've done in 2000. Very mature writing but far from the "heavy but o... so boring" category.
Rating: 
Summary: I liked It! I Really Liked It!
Review: Though this book didn't live up to all the hype it received earlier last year, I still enjoyed it a great deal. When I read a description of the book prior to reading it, I thought it was going to be just about the relationship between Archie and Samad. However, as I read the book it became more the other characters who helped mold the relationship: Clara, Alsana, Irie, Millet and Magid, etc... The psychology in the book is very interesting; it is almost funny to think that Archie wouldn't have met all these people and been in such scenarios had he commited suicide. I also thought this book was going to be hard to get through because there are some many characters; in reality Smith writes about them in such a way that their striking personalities stay with you. After reading it, I realized how the title of the book, White Teeth, plays a major role in how race, politics, and sex collide in today's cosmopolitan London. This is truly a good novel from a first-time author. I hope to see more from Smith in the future.
Rating: 
Summary: believe the hype!
Review: I know I'm going to confuse people by praising White Teeth and rating it with a single star, but I figured that if I give it the full 5 stars (which I was planning to do), my review would undoutedly be lost in a whole sea of other great reviews. White Teeth is quite probably the best book I have read in a long time: I recently met up with a former English teacher and we began talking about books. I mentioned White Teeth and we just started jumping around excitedly, because she'd read it too and enjoyed it, perhaps, even more than I did...she actually asked an English friend about Willesden Green (where the novel is set) and confirmed that it is the sort of place Smith so vividly evokes it to be. In response to critics of the book who label it 'too long', or boring, one cannot be impatient in dealing with such extraordinary material as this. It does hit hard: the action is far from being subdued, and the descriptions of place and character are both absurd yet rooted firmly in verisimilitude. I never felt that I had to 'plough through' the material: I enjoyed it immensely, especially how Smith converges ideology, religion and situation expertly as the novel accelerates towards the end. Smith's style is ornately realistic, and White Teeth is filled with such ironic, as well as poignant instances of wit that elude most other novels. A true revolution in the literature of the modern (perhaps post-modern) genre! I may not have read a whole lot of books, but from an adolescent perspective, I think I do know a great book when I read one, and this is doubtless one of those rare gems that I'm glad I lived through!!
Rating:
Summary: Sucks!
Review: Don't believe the hype! This tripe may have appeased the politically correct crowd, but My God, give me a break. Unfunny, preposterous drivel. Obviously, Ms. Smith must have a very good friend or family member in publishing. Just abysmal. Save your money.
Rating:
Summary: overrated
Review: just not worth it. as one reviewer said, "pop novel" of the worst kind.
Rating:
Summary: Boooooring
Review: Did you enjoy "Satanic Verses"? Well, neither did I. Salman Rushdie gives "White Teeth" high marks, so if you thought Satanic Verses was a hoot, I guess you'll like this. Trying to read this was a snore. I skimmed, hoping in vain it would get better. It never did.
Rating: 
Summary: Pop-fiction
Review: Dreadful fin-de-siecle 'pop-novel'. I had the dubious honour of coming across jean-clad Ms. Smith at a literary awards ceremony the other day and her Oasis-like grunge dress sense reminded me of her writing. White Teeth is a 'cool Britannia' novel for the Blairite age: superficial and pretentious. They can try as hard as they like, but the Oxbridge-brigade can't write authentically about the trials and tribulations of life on the povery line. Caviar anyone?
Rating:
Summary: This novel had me laughing out loud!!
Review: What first generation parent has not felt the way Samad does. He struggles to provide his children w/opportunities, only to find he can no longer relate to them nor they to him. This novel is about assimilation and all its painful realities. First generation (as well as multi-generation) parents struggle with this issue and Zadie deals with it with intellect and humor. Not since my favorite writer Patrick Chamoiseau (which Zadie reminds me of a great deal) has this theme been dealt with so brilliantly. Bravo Zadie!!
Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: It is impressive enough, let's be honest, that a 24-year-old can have the maturity and diligence to complete a novel of any sort. But to complete one that is deep on so many levels, so funny, so pertinent to how we live today, balances so many different plotlines without ever losing control of any of them, speaks in so many different voices (from a conflicted Bengali Muslim to a hardcore animal rights activist to a 85-year-old Jehovah's Witness, and many others in between) without ever sounding less than authentic, is so rare that one almost considers it a miracle. Forget all those, "all white people are bad, everyone else is good" multiculturalism books they made you read in college that were universally lame. This is by far the most pertinent book about mutliculturalism that I've ever read, because it is based on real life as it is currently lived, not on guilt for the sins of our ancestors. It is about the difficulty in staying true to ones roots, but at the same time being a part of the present and future. This novel goes so much deeper than that though, because ultimately, it is not just about culture as a whole, but about the individual. About the desperate need of the individual to feel that his or her existence is important. I hope I'm not making this book sound too serious. Zadie Smith has an incredibly hilarious writing style, that keeps you laughing and smiling even as the more important messages of the novel seep into your mind. This novel isn't perfect (what is?), some characters that we come to care about early in the book fade into secondary characters a bit too quickly (Clara, for example) and some of the novels morals are not quite as subtle as the author probably intends. Still, this novel is so good I can't bring myself to give is anything less than five stars. Not to get too strung up in hyperbole, but reading a novel like this, by such a young writer who one hopes will only get better with time, makes one feel more comfortable about the future of literature.
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