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Summary: The search for identity is funnier than you might think...
Review: The London of Zadie Smith's White Teeth is a crazy place, a hotbed for the battle of generations, sexes, and nationalities. Erudite and irreverent, White Teeth traces the lives of just a few of London's inhabitants, namely the Joneses, the Iqbals, and the Chalfens. These families find themselves intertwined in various ways and their connection is the focal point of the novel. Smith delves into the issues at heart in many big cities that shelter immigrants. As Bangladeshi immigrants, Samad and Alsana must come to terms with living in a country constantly looks upon them as outsiders. As their twin sons Millat and Magid grow, Samad fears that Western culture will begin to separate the boys from the Muslim faith. His decision to send Magid back to his homeland has lasting repurcussions for all of the key characters.Meanwhile, the docile Archie has married the beautiful Clara Bowden whose roots can be traced back to the plantations of Jamaica. Their child Irie wrestles with feelings of inadequacy brought on by her multiracial beginnings. Her love for her parents and her passion for Millat are constantly tempered by self-doubt and hostility. Irie also knows how it feels to be an outcast or perceived as different. Through it all, Smith adeptly melds tragedy with comedy. Her characters are rich. The strongest chapters of the novel appear later as the Chalfen family attempts to "save" Millat and Irie. Her approach to religion and popular culture are especially entertaining. There is something decisively British about her humour even if the London setting is merely a microcosm for the Western world. Through her humour Smith tackles some very real issues: the battle between the "materialist" West and the "traditional" values of other cultures. The search for an identity seems to plague all of her characters regardless of age, sex, or race.
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Summary: Couldn't plow through this one.
Review: I couldn't finish this book. I just got tired of the people and it didn't seem like there was really a plot. Lots of potential, great dialog, interesting ethnic melting pot, but it lost me.
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Summary: White Teeth
Review: Most promising first novel in years.
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Summary: Best novel of 2000
Review: There is so much here to comment on but I want to keep this as brief as possible and allow you the reader to enter on your own and be overwhelmed. Sure this book is long-winded, self-indulgent and at times I felt that the author was more concerned about conveying her impressive smarts than keeping the novel on a solid narrative course. But at the same time I was alternately beguiled, moved, and genuinely felt myself caring for these characters in a way no new novel of this year has made me feel. The theme of White Teeth is cultural displacement: (When is the last time you read a new book and was actually able to decipher a meaning behind it?) Two families - one Pakistani, one half-British/half-Jamaican - over the last 25 years with excursions into turn of the century Jamaica, WW2 North Africa, and colonial India. It is essentially the story of what happens when immigrant children try to break ties with their cultural heritage to assimilate into their adopted land. In some ways this book reminded me of the recent film "East is East" which dealt with a similar issue, also in a very humorous and poignant way. For all its narrative and linguistic flourishes, White Teeth remains a singularly intimate book about family, culture, religion, and the challenges of growing up in an environment where no matter how hard you try to fit in, you will always be marked as different. I was utterly charmed.
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Summary: Brilliant
Review: Has its flaws (minor) as one would expect from a first novel by a very young writer, but overall a compelling well-written and hard to put down read. American readers will not be unduly confused by the parochial references to parts of London and the social aspects of English life. Strong characters, very well written. Implausable plot, but so what? Most of all, it is FUN to read!
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Summary: Book Title
Review: In response to the review by the ladies in the book club from Bloomfield, CT (October 21) who were baffled by the book's title: white teeth are a common characteristic across all racial divides. I am surprised that they did not pick up on the title straight away- I didn't think it was undecipherable but rather cleverly subtle. A book's title is the main thing that draws me to a book.
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Summary: Excellent
Review: "White Teeth" is one of the best novels I have ever read, let along being a stunning debut. Smith's use of dialogue is smooth and un-self-conscious. Her panorama of Britain's cultural melting pot is fascinating. A rare book that could be read twice and enjoyed twice. I can't wait for her next book.
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Summary: Slow Moving
Review: Although the book did prove to be well written the story itself seemed to get lost in too many words. What started off as a promising and entertaining story soon took a turn for the worst. Unfortunatly I feel compelled to finish a book once I have commited to starting it. I found myself flying through the second half just to get it over with. Thankfully the last couple of pages were able to spark my interest, but not enough to redeem itself.
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Summary: A Strange Mix
Review: Archibald Jones reminds me a little of Joyce's Leopold Bloom; he believes that people of all classes and backgrounds can mingle and get along. To that end, Archibald (who is a paper folder by profession) chooses as his best friend, the Bangladeshi, Samad Iqbal, a one-handed Muslim London waiter. White Teeth encompasses the time period from 1975 to 1993 and traces the friendship between Archibald and Samad. As we learn more about the two men, we also learn about their friends and families, such as Archibald's toothless Jamaican wife, as well as their daughter Irie, and Samad's arranged-marriage, a marriage that was satisfactory enough to produce twin sons named Millat and Magid. During the telling of her story, Smith makes several forays into rather bizarre and hilarious worlds: a Jamaican hair salon; a school that was begun as a workhouse for Jamaican immigrants; and an Irish pub that has become a catch-all for Muslim immigrants in London. Smith's characters are all eccentrics, with strange habits and quirks but who, nevertheless, seek to blend into the background of modern-day London despite their differences in race, style, language and religious belief. The fact that none of them really does blend is something that simply escapes them altogether. Take Millat, for instance. This fifteen-year old boy was born and raised in London, but he looks like "Omar Sharif, thirty years ago." His efforts at "blending" are nothing short of enormous, "He was simply too big to remain merely a leader of the Raggastanis..he had to please all of the people...to the Cockney wide-boys he was the joker...to the Asian kids, hero and spokesperson...and underneath it all...the feeling of belonging nowhere that comes to people who belong everywhere." Smith writes about a London that is home to people who really have no home; i.e., a sense of place. Her characters seem disconnected, at loose ends. There is Samad's son Magid, who was sent to Bangladesh to learn to become a "proper" Muslim at the age of nine. When he returns to London at seventeen he comes back wearing all white, "ironing his underpants," speaking very, very proper Queen's English and eating English bacon for breakfast. An aspiring lawyer, Magid is more English than the English. Millat, however, is a different story. Although he admits to being from "Whitechapel...via the Royal London Hospital and the 207 bus," Millat is a rootless young man in emotional turmoil. In an effort to put down some much-needed roots, he joins a group known as KEVIN. Smith obviously knows London and both the East and the West. She writes about diverse cultures and races with joy and humor and pathos. When Samad complains "birthplaces are accidents...everything is an accident," Irie counters with, "the land of accidents sounded like a paradise...like freedom." Obviously, colonialism, or any of its vestiges, plays no part in White Teeth. Smith's London is, in fact, a true melting-pot. It is a city that experiences excitement, aggravation, anger and edginess, but never out-and-out violence. It is a world of muted shades of gray where nothing is black and white. Its inhabitants are more intent on blending than on emphasizing individual differences. Smith is an excellent writer and this is an excellent debut novel. It is a bit unfocused at times and there are times when it goes on for pages and pages and we wonder what Smith is really getting at. She seems to be a little like Millat, wanting to please all of the people all of the time. Ultimately, however, we realize the Smith is trying to tell us to simply get on with getting on. It's not a bad message and, although it's not perfect, White Teeth is definitely not a bad book nor one to be dismissed.
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Summary: Disappointed
Review: My book club, a group of six Black women, read this book, for our last book club meeting. While we all agreed that Zadie Smith does indeed have a flair for writing, and writes extremely well we were disappointed and a little confused as to why this book was given rave reviews. Not one of us could make the connection between the title "White Teeth" and the story. So, obviously we missed something in the story. Usually, the meaning of the title is revealed somewhere in the plot. We thought the plot was very weak Can someone explain what "White Teeth" means. Also, not one of us found this book to be enjoyable. There were high points, but there were far too many pages that just went on and on and on. Most found it painful to finish, but as a commitment to the group all but one of us finished the book. Most of the members said that they kept reading because they had invested so much time and kept waiting, waiting for something to pull them into the story. The final verdict - disappointed!
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