Rating: 
Summary: Funny, Mature, Complex and Light!
Review: This book gives voice to all of the "Others" not usually given center place in Literature. Zadie Smith loves her protagonists in all their faults, complexities and strengths. This novel bursts with life and love of it but never simplifies. It respects the complexity of life and at the same time insists on the overarching forces that drive us. This is the best novel i read this year. The fact that this novel present a real depth in the treatment of her main themes is amazing because it is also HILARIOUS!
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding proof that culture clash is not all bad!
Review: The friendship of Samad Iqbal, a Bengali Muslim, and British Archibald Jones is hilarious. Their cultures and behavior are so different, yet their good fellowship endures. Samad, through an arranged marriage, weds Alsana, also a Bengali Muslim. Archie marries a very young black Jamaican woman, Clara, after his first marriage ends. Their roles as parents become quite trying, however, when another British couple, Joyce and Marcus Chalfen, involve themselves with the Samad's twin boys (Millat and Magid) and Archie's daughter (Irie). Suddenly the younger generation breaks loose from the teachings of their parents and the novel just takes off!Teenage rebelliousness and culture clash highlight this novel. The story deals expertly with parent-child relationships, religion, race, culture, friendship, marital relationships, and ethics. Everything is done with compassion and very sharp humor. This is a surprisingly mature and insightful book for a young first-time author. A remarkably inventive plot and great writing make this a must read.
Rating: 
Summary: Not White Enough
Review: Ever kissed someone with bad teeth? It's like liking a dirty stone (too much history, I think). Anyway, I wanted to stop reading this book until "The Miseducation of Irie Jones." Before this chapter, the characters are bitter, resentful people who don't deserve to be played out in a book. Their story is archaic, one-dimentional and boring. From other reviews I've read the older people think exactly the opposite. However, the book does change when you look into the life of Irie Jones, her school and her friends. I admit she's no angel and she's a little obnoxious but she is more sympathetic to the world around her. Who could criticize her when she struggles so much with beauty, racism and her hair? This is where history has led us to. My reasons for the three stars is because about half-way through the book Smith breaks a major fiction rule by interrupting the story with a sentence of her own thoughts. With so many characters as narrator, Smith does not need to jump in but she does. Maybe it was something the editor missed or didn't think it was important. When I read it though it really jarred me. White Teeth does have its moments. It's time to stop dreaming about the old days and looking into the new with understanding and patience. It's time to start taking care of those precious teeth.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous!
Review: What a great book! I borrowed this one from my sister, who said she could not get into it. I got sucked into it right away, and am shocked that more people didn't love it as much as I did. There are some really funny parts. If your parents are immigrants from Asia, like mine are, you will probably appreciate the parts about the accents even more. Check this one out - if you don't love it, pass it on to the next person you meet - I bet they will!
Rating: 
Summary: white teeth
Review: I think all the reviews I read about this book have an element of truth in them.......I had the book on tape that was read by Jenny Sterlin and the job she did with the different dialects was incredible. I listen to a lot of books on tape and this was one of the most fun ones I've ever heard.
Rating:
Summary: refreshing to see
Review: I was encouraged by this book. The writer is close to my age and it is refreshing to see a writer in her early 20's write produce this kind of quality. A welcome change from other books being produced by people my age, which all seem to have a sameness of perspective and tone, which I would describe very loosely as being sarcastic, introspective, too self-conscious, etc. This aesthetic is difficult to describe, but whatever it is I am glad I am not detecting it in Smith's writing. By contrast, her prose is hopeful, cosmopolitan, compassionate, truly witty, funny as hell. Perhaps what I most enjoyed was that it is mature, well-researched and intelligent. And not a hint of of angst or of conforming to a certain generational aesthetic. There really is no comparison that I can think of because she is writing a genuine, mature book the very first time around. It really did make me hopeful that we will start to see a kind of maturation and indeed a renaissance among literary and other creative people in their 20's. I want to see more of this kind of work from people my age. It made me want to start my own novel and see where it goes. This may all sound a but over-the-top but the book is that good. Impressive. I had to give it four stars only because of certain moments, especially toward the end, where the dialogue started to break down a little, as if the characters were becoming flat and two-dimensional, while before they were living and breathing. I think this is simply because the ending is too long, overwrought, and baroque. It just seemed to go on and on like she just couldn't bear to give up whatever ending she had in her head. A little editorial detachment and cutting would have helped. Had she wrapped it up more neatly there wouldn't have been any problems. Looking forward to her next one, which from what I've heard should be more of the same funny but affectionate satire.
Rating: 
Summary: Non-credible writing.
Review: Somewhat interesting, but slow reading. My personal annoyance is her complete misrepresentation of Jehovah's Witnesses. At first I thought it was amusing and a great basis for a character. However, I am personally acquainted with many Witnesses, and her many mistakes in describing their beliefs is disturbing. I realize that this is a novel and it involves fictional characters, but she misstates so much that it erodes my belief in anything she has written about other characters and their customs and backgrounds, be it Islamic, Bengali, East Indian, West Indian, British, or whatever. She is completely non-credible as an author. Try again.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't finish it
Review: I know everyone else raved about it, but I couldn't get into these characters. The plot meandered along so randomly (all those asides and flashbacks) that I had trouble keeping interested. I finally gave up about half way through the book, which I typically don't do (I'm usually a voracious reader & finish everything, even if it's a bit boring) so I can't recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: What a brilliant web we weave...
Review: The negative reactions to this book made me think about why I love it. It may seem scattered, and random, with the ending being completely dependent on coincidence. But how different is that from real life? This book looks at its characters from the outside inwards, whereas we see our lives from a very narrow viewpoint, one that we define, and from the inside outwards -- that's the advantage of an omniscient narrator. There are many coincidences in life that we simply don't acknowledge -- think about all the stories of people of people who went to the same high school without knowing each other, then end up marrying ten years later. Even in a globalized era, our paths may appear random at the level of the individual, but the macrocosm manages to relate us all. I think the tendency for us is to assume that there is no master plan, when in fact there might be one. At that point, like Marcus Chalfen, we try to impose our own order on the world. And, like Marcus, we find that doesn't work. Another complaint I have problems with is the idea that the early characters fade towards the end of the novel. Again, how different is that from reality? Mangal Pande's shadow looms over Samad, but, effectively, the legacy is one of the major reasons Samad is never happy -- he's always in a competition with a dead guy! Samad himself has to fade for his sons to emerge. But that fading is never complete, as we see with Mr. JP Hamilton. He has a history almost completely irrelevant to Irie, Magid, and Millat, but that doesn't make his irrelevance any less tragic. We all have to overcome legacies left to us by our forebears, but annihilation of memory is never complete (or necessary.) One problem I think people hasn't been mentioned is the prevalence of "in" jokes. I'm sure that many of the things that I find funny made no sense to a lot of people, but that says something about the relationship between sub-cultures and the wider identity of a nation. Like other readers, I was impressed with how many topics Smith was able to tackle at an intelligent level (and she's only three years older than me!) Finally, my favorite parts of the novel is the characters. Every character is absurd, but no more absurd than real people. Archie's life revolves around a coin, Clara is a lapsed Jehovah's Witness whose ex-boyfriend is trying to lure her back to the religion she showed him, Samad struggles to confom to a religion he hates, Magid and Millat are a twin study for the ages, and Alsana should give pause to anyone who still believes that Muslim women are inherently oppressed. But, hey, aren't we all just a little whacked? We all have contradictions of character that make us just a little more imperfect or a little more human. This book captures that, but it manages not to get weighed down by the material it tackles.
Rating: 
Summary: Tedious At Best!
Review: Tedious at best! Just as a character begins to develop,
the author is off on another track. If you like lots of
flashbacks, bits and pieces of each character and have a
lot of time, then you may find the book interesting. The
potential was there, but the author apparently felt that
she would rather be "clever". A no vote for this one!
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