Rating: 
Summary: Getting to the root
Review: Zadie Smith's White Teeth at first glance is an examination of the role that race, gender and religion play in London, England. But it is also a deeper look at how memory and history shape people and society. The novel follows Archibald Jones, "the chaff" of Britain and Samad Iqbal, a Muslim Bengali through the scenery of war, marriage, parenthood and religious fanaticism.
White Teeth weaves present and past together, creating identity through oral histories. These pivotal stories are set apart as "Root Canal" stories, which explain where the characters believe their roots lie. In this way, White Teeth, becomes the overarching metaphor for story telling.
By incorporating the tooth metaphor that she laid out in the novel's title, Smith ties in the concept of oral history. Smith gives these oral histories as much attention as she does to her characters' stories in the present. Smith suggests that, true or not, these oral histories - these memories as deep as any other roots - shape who they are.
In summing up his roots, Samad's telling of his great-grandfather's near brush with heroism and fame becomes a running joke throughout the novel. At the same time that the repetition is humorous, Smith allows a more serious aspect to creep in. Samad holds his great-grandfather on a pedestal of achievement but his story is so inconsistent - it conflicts with written history and is subject to numerous confused re-tellings - that the reader quickly understands the problem of putting too much faith in memories and story telling.
Irie reinforces this message as she attempts to retrace her family's story. In her case, too many stories are missing. The roots of her past are as absent as her mother's two front teeth.
What is so compelling about Smith's oral history/teeth as family tree metaphor is that she uses it to equally discredit her theory that the characters' pasts decide who they are. Despite all the tensions of race, ethnicity, gender and age, and the ever-present problem of assimilation among the younger generations, the one thing all the characters have in common is their white teeth.
Smith does a magnificent job of demonstrating how everyone - no matter how British or how "normal" - has roots that set them apart. This sense of not belonging is exactly what unifies us in the end.
Rating: 
Summary: Potboiler
Review: What a disappointment. Smith has cobbled together lots of stories and lots of characters, but with almost no precision whatsoever. This is a page-turner for sure, but the almost total lack of characterization or observation of human nature, and smug posturing make for a tiresome read indeed. Comparisons to Rushdie are not only totally outrageous (he knows how to write with depth, feeling, and intellect) but also mildly racist, positing as they do that any writer of color chronicling immigrant life in London must be like Rushdie. Stop thinking about buying this book and go to the master. For a book on being a colored immigrant in London, pick up Satanic Verses instead.
Rating: 
Summary: Great but...
Review: I think Zadie Smith is an incredibly talented writer, a knack for fleshing out quirky and believeable characters and writing funny turns of phrases but...
the ending is a bit of sad neglected fluff, it seems as if she needed to end the book and that was that...the plot meandered and went basically nowwhere...
I can't wait for her sophmore effort, one could only hope she will improve...
Rating:
Summary: Where are the heroes?
Review: While I am amazed that an author so young could write so knowledgably about life, I am saddened by the lives she depicts. There is not one character in her entire novel who exemplifies strength, morality, or values. Each one is a victim to his or her own personal "whines": my father is too religious, my mother is too submissive, our family is too bent on its past. I tired easily of the weaknesses I found present throughout this book. No one was willing to accept responsbility for the consequences of their actions, because it's so much easier to blame someone, or something, else. Most disappointing of all, to me, is the fact that (Indian) people who have immigrated to London want all the benefits that it has to offer, while at the same time disdaining the impurity of the West. "It wasn't enough....his kids doing well, going to a nice school, having tennis lessons, too pale-skinned to ever have a hand laid on them in their lives. Good. But not good enough. He wanted a little payback. For himself. He wanted Brother Ibrahim to stand on that podium and dissect Christian culture and Western morals until it was dust in his hands. He wanted the degenerate nature of these people explained to him..." page 392 paperback edition. Fine. You want to mock the culture from which you take all the benefit? Go home, then.
Rating: 
Summary: Stunning!
Review: It's really nothing less than remarkable that the author was twenty-four years old when this book was published. It reads as if it was written by someone considerably older, world-weary, and hugely experienced. This tale of two families has an immense cast of characters, each wonderfully well depicted. It covers such arcane territory as school smoking and its "rules," Samad Iqbal's obsession with his famous ancestor and his neverending battles--both physical and mental--with his wife over their twin sons (who are the Cain and Abel of the tale); Clara (and her Jehovah's Witness grandmother, Hortense) and Archie Jones--English everyman and Samad's war-buddy-best friend. It deals with sexual politics, political politics, philosophical politics; the creating of acronymed groups of zealots (anti cruelty to animals; Muslim fundamentalism, the Witnesses); sexual peccadilloes; friendship; racism--everything, in fact, to do with the human condition. And the author deals even-handedly with all of it, with great humor and affection for her flawed, terribly human characters. This is a delicious book, chock-full of keen and tenchant observations made by a young woman who, evidently, never stops looking and listening to what goes on around her. London in all its wonderful, frantic madness comes to life in a modern-day Dickensian fashion that is nothing less than brilliant. Entertaining, funny, touching and beautifully told, this is an astounding debut. One has to wonder what Zadie Smith will do next.
Most highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: A superb read
Review: Despite the mixed reviews from amazon.com readers, I have to say that reading "White Teeth" got me interested in the society of Great Britain that is rarely shown in the media. She does a great job on tackling race, sex, class, and history. Her geographical research from Jamaica to Turkey to Bangladesh is an excellent guide for the reader as she is describing her characters and their reason for being in the story.
The book based in North London encounters two unlikely, yet interesting men Archie Jones and Samad Iqbal. The reason I say interesting because as you read in to the story you wonder why they are the way they are. Both men "served" in World War 2. The word served is quoted because they really didn't do any combat in their battalion. They rather served their commander and battalion. Even after the war, they still serve; but to their employers. Archie works for a printing company performing miniscule tasks and Samad is a waiter in an Indian restaurant.
The book touches on some issue of multiculturalism and assimilation. Samad, fearing that his sons will be too influenced by the mainstream culture of rap and rock music and name brand clothes, sends one son to live with his family in Bangladesh leaving one son behind. He couldn't afford to send the both to live with his family. He wants his sons to know the meaning of Islam and what it is to be a colored. But he himself doesn't really have any idea of who he really is. He drinks Guiness and is in the past about a sepoy who resisted the British. He is even more disappointed when his sons have failed to live up to his expectations.
Irie Jones, the daughter of Clara Bowden, a Jamaican, and Archie Jones, is dealing with her own awkwardness. She is attracted to the wreckless Millat who only sees her as a friend. She works for the Chalfens who are influential to her which upsets her mother. She looks at her family and at Samad's family and comes to the conclusion that they are all outrageous.
The book for me was too hard to put down. I had to know what would happen next in chapters as I was reading. I find that reading takes a great deal of patience and reading "White Teeth" one has to understand what the writer is talking about.
Rating:
Summary: A Personal Favorite
Review: "White Teeth" is one of the best books I've read this year. The characters are rich and intriguing. Smith writes with such beautiful nuances. Who better to write about the love that one young woman feels for her childhood friend? Who better to show that "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree?" I spent the entire novel wishing for change, hoping for change. Then, I realized, it's all fiction, isn't it?
Don't pass this one up.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful poetry disguised as a book
Review: If this book would have been a play I would have stood up and clapped at the end of it. The underlying mythological themes (twins; travel to the axis munde; evil vs. good; earth mothers) keep this novel alive and swiftly moving. The beginning of this novel places us in a most destitute state in which we are about to witness a suicide. The character is slowing suffocating (and intoxicating...much like our favorite god Bacchus) himself with the carbon monoxide of his car. As he is about to pass out, a butcher knocks on the window and tells him how there "sha'nt be any dying on HIS property." With this simple message, our character has decided that the gods have given him a sign (and another chance) that he should live. What a careful introduction to a man who often chooses which direction to turn in life with the flip of a coin. The book follows Archie (our former suicide-attempter), his friend Samad (an Indian man who's only claim to fame is that his great grandfather was the first man to rise against the tyranny of the British Empire...and the first to be shot), their wives, and their children. Poignant and lyrically enthralling, I would recommend this book to any reader who is looking for a little more substance. A++++++++
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing (after all that hype!)
Review: In White Teeth, Zadie Smith assembles quite a cast: The bumbling middle-class Englishman, the Jamaican Jehovah's Witness, the Pakistani family divided between traditional parents and rebelious children, and a Nazi-esque white family masquerading as do-gooders. The first 1/4 of the book is so full of cliches and been-done Brit Chick Lit banter that I almost put the book down (there should be a law against referring to "pass-go-collect-$200" by now!)...thankfully, when the second section starts the cliches disappear and the story starts to get (somewhat) interesting. Without giving away details, I can say that readers will find some very original writing mixed with a lot of "let's all get along" preaching and mild paranoia about "what white people are really thinking when brown-skinned people aren't around" along with one or two Biblical misquotes. Unfortunately the obviously talented Ms. Smith leaves the cast where they are at the beginning, dragging the story along without allowing either the plot or the characters develop into a worthwhile read.
Rating: 
Summary: what the heck is this book about
Review: I got all the way to page 200 of the huge, long book and I still had no idea what this book was about. I read so many excellent reviews about it, and I am wondering if we were reading the same book. Is there another book named White teeth out there?
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