White Teeth

Author - Zadie Smith ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Hardcover Book item from Random House was reviewed on 4-Nov-2008.

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1) Hardcover Book White Teeth by Random House. I struggled with "White Teeth" when I first opened the book shortly after its publication several years back. I liked parts, didn´t like others. The book seemed too loose for me, it roamed around, bouncing from scene to scene, character to character. I laughed at some of the scenes, but struggled to keep turning the pages. Now when I go back to the book, I´m simply amazed to find that it´s incredibly coherent, the story woven artfully together, cohesive, tasty in its comic flare, just plain delightful. It´s not the England I really know, yet I´m sure it´s the England that really is. As a writer, Smith is great to read, and "White Teeth" must stand as the very best of her work. In looking at her subsequent novels, I don´t find the same kind of exhilaration, the same energy as in "White Teeth," but that´s OK. She´s done it so well here that all is forgiven. "White Teeth" is one for the ages.

-Tom Maremaa, Author of the Forthcoming Metal Heads: A Novel from Kunati Books in Spring 2009¤

2) Hardcover Book White Teeth by Random House. White Teeth can hardly be called anything but epic - not only in length, but in the sheer volume of events that occur as the story unfolds. This a double-edged sword - while there are long sections of brilliant characterization and interesting plot-lines, there are extended sections of excruciatingly boring text which feel unnecessary as you´re reading them. However, the greatest thing this novel accomplishes is to tie together all its strands, which continually wind tighter as the story leads to its conclusion. Most of the characters are at least entertaining, and two or three are outstanding. There are also a few annoying, boring characters which seem to add nothing to the novel at all - Clara´s father comes to mind here.

This novel is certainly worth reading, even if some of the longer, less interesting sections of the narrative need to be skimmed through or skipped altogether. Truth be told, the reader would only be cheating himself to pass these sections by, as they do seem to pay off in the end. However, it reads like something of an endurance test at times, and a feeling arises that the author was being overindulgent in writing such a massive book. Despite its flaws, White Teeth showcases some excellent storytelling, and I would recommend seeing it out to the end, though I promise you, at times, it will be difficult.

8/10¤

3) Hardcover Book White Teeth by Random House. I agree with other reviewers who mention Smith´s lack of focus in writing the story and lack of compassion for the characters. It reads like the work of a twenty-something with limited life experience who is overly proud of herself and just can´t be bothered to get anything right. Flip judgments of characters don´t make for an entertaining or compelling read. This is one to avoid, despite the opinions of reviewers obsessed with the writer´s youth and good looks. It´s a look, not a book.¤

4) Hardcover Book White Teeth by Random House. Smith´s book starts out alright but quickly deteriorates. I was not impressed with Smith´s ability to tell a story or develop characters. There are so many good writers to read-- old classics as well as new young ones. I would not waste my time with another one of her books.¤

5) Hardcover Book White Teeth by Random House. Some members of our book club found the novel amusing and interesting, but the majority felt the work was a slog which would benefit from drastic editing.¤

6) Hardcover Book White Teeth by Random House. One of the most talked about fictional debuts of recent years, "White Teeth" is a funny, generous, big-hearted novel, adored by critics and readers alike. Dealing - among many other things - with friendship, love, war, three cultures and three families over three generations, one brown mouse, and the tricky way the past has of coming back and biting you on the ankle, it is a life-affirming, riotous must-read of a book.¤

7) Hardcover Book White Teeth by Random House. Epic in scale and intimate in approach, White Teeth is a formidably ambitious debut. First novelist Zadie Smith takes on race, sex, class, history, and the minefield of gender politics, and such is her wit and inventiveness that these weighty subjects seem effortlessly light. She also has an impressive geographical range, guiding the reader from Jamaica to Turkey to Bangladesh and back again.

Still, the book´s home base is a scrubby North London borough, where we encounter Smith´s unlikely heroes: prevaricating Archie Jones and intemperate Samad Iqbal, who served together in the so-called Buggered Battalion during World War II. In the ensuing decades, both have gone forth and multiplied: Archie marries beautiful, bucktoothed Clara--who´s on the run from her Jehovah´s Witness mother--and fathers a daughter. Samad marries stroppy Alsana, who gives birth to twin sons. Here is multiculturalism in its most elemental form: "Children with first and last names on a direct collision course. Names that secrete within them mass exodus, cramped boats and planes, cold arrivals, medical checks."

Big questions demand boldly drawn characters. Zadie Smith´s aren´t heroic, just real: warm, funny, misguided, and entirely familiar. Reading their conversations is like eavesdropping. Even a simple exchange between Alsana and Clara about their pregnancies has a comical ring of truth: "A woman has to have the private things--a husband needn´t be involved in body business, in a lady´s... parts." And the men, of course, have their own involvement in bodily functions:

The deal was this: on January 1, 1980, like a New Year dieter who gives up cheese on the condition that he can have chocolate, Samad gave up masturbation so that he might drink. It was a deal, a business proposition, that he had made with God: Samad being the party of the first part, God being the sleeping partner. And since that day Samad had enjoyed relative spiritual peace and many a frothy Guinness with Archibald Jones; he had even developed the habit of taking his last gulp looking up at the sky like a Christian, thinking: I´m basically a good man.

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 2-Dec-2008, , 930-490-400-250-330-4JB-KWB-HUB-USB-8

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