White Teeth: A Novel
by Zadie Smith
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Book Reviews of White Teeth: A Novel
Book Review: A sign of great things to come
Summary: 4 Stars
As a writer, Zadie Smith deserves all of the accolades she receives. In writing "White Teeth," Smith brings together great prose, social savvy, a sense of humor, and encyclopedic knowledge of British colonial history, several religions, and pop culture. The result is an ambitious and often humorous novel about two generations of two socially marginal families (one immigrant, one racially mixed) in lower middle class London.The scope of the novel is epic, and Smith leaves no stone unturned as she undertakes a meaningful exploration of the lives of at least ten incredibly disperate characters who all suffer from the same fatal flaw -- a willingness to give up anything for a single (character-specific) principle. Despite its breadth, every detail in "White Teeth" ends up mattering, all roads lead to the same place, and I'm left wondering how a 23-year-old Smith had the wisdom and maturity to compose such a well thought out first novel.
As a smart, witty, hip, detailed novel, "White Teeth" is the type of work that would normally blow me away. While I am incredibly impressed by Smith, I felt sometimes that "White Teeth" was a little long and that there were a few too many important characters. The story works, but the reader gets stretched so thin among the gaggle of scheming Londonites that it's hard to maintain sympathy for any of them. When I got to the last chapter and realized Smith had only 18 pages to resolve the tangled web she wove, I knew I was going to walk away a little disappointed.
Still, this novel is a good read. It's thought provoking, yet entertaining. Deep, but accessible. "White Teeth" is not perfect, but it is definitely one of the best books of 2000. If you have a decent attention span and a lot of free time, you should give it a shot.
Book Review: Can be quite tedious
Summary: 3 Stars
There is a point in this novel where one fears, through the eyes of 2010, that it is heading into the most horribly cliched place; what, with its trending towards a public display with radical Islamic factions and all.
But no, though there is a point where it becomes almost unbearable, *tedious*, to read--it comes back from that brink. Upon closer inspection, the publishing date was 2000, so it really couldn't have gone that far at all.
Then again, this book is much more about what doesn't happen than what does. The end of the world that doesn't come, successes not fulfilled, intentions of the parents rallied and railed against to the maximum dissatisfaction, parentage unrevealed, destinies unfulfilled, affairs undone. People not killed.
I was prepared to judge this book harshly; it spends much time dawdling and dallying with ideologies of characters without really saying much about them. Alas, it's the inaction, the non-thought that makes the characters. Frequently, this book is funny--but in a sly, sideways, wink-wink-nudge-nudge sort of way. It is unexpected, and one grows unexpectedly fond of the characters. Each and every one of them. In fact, there is not an unlikable one in the bunch (which does not denote that they are one-dimensional in the least). They are flawed, bored, underachieving--but they are endearing and well drawn.
And as for the ending...well, I'm not spoiling anything by saying there isn't one. (It may frustrate some, and the author tongue-a-little-too-in-cheek acknowledges that one would like to see a result from the characters' pacing around the chessboard.) But there is no ending in life--only incidents. Only living with ourselves, our families, our nationalities, our faith--and this book manages to capture that quite beautifully.
Book Review: I am Torn Here...
Summary: 4 Stars
Okay, I am torn here. This is a really good debut novel, but I feel like this novel was overhyped. Sometimes when a book makes the Bestseller's List, it doesn't mean it's a masterpiece. After reading On Beauty first, I know Zadie Smith is a good writer. However, White Teeth made me feel like, as a writer, she was putting too much into this novel. I believe one reviewer said that Smith was "trying too hard". Sometimes I think so too.
There are so many themes here, so many angles, it leaves the reader (at times) confused and bored. Its called White Teeth and there were so many references and metaphors coinciding with molars, wisdom teeth, etc. to people and I am guessing their mistakes? Later on, it became mice and the past. How did teeth, mice and the past all go together, I don't know? Then you dive into way too many themes for one book here: race, gender, sexual orientation, politics, science, religion, etc. It just felt way too compacted. You can't fit a zoo into a cupboard. It's too grand. That's what I feel happened here. It's just too much.
Granted, this book was funny- but the media made it seem like it was hilarious and it is not THAT funny. Perhaps it is because I am American and not British so I cannot exactly relate to the moments in British history that she touches upon in the book; but it was a bit of a struggle to continue with the book at times. Towards the end, you see why the media claims her work to be Dickensian, which is a great tool for the story. The Dickensian twist was something I really enjoyed. Great pay off. In conclusion, its a good book but the reader will see how messy it all is (which Zadie Smith had once said is a style that she admires from other writers and incorporated it into her own work) and one may or may not like it.
Book Review: If I Could Only Give It a 0/5
Summary: 1 Stars
Let me just start off by saying that I expected the best from this book. Like many others purchasing White Teeth, this book was required reading for my English course. Unfortunately, by the end of the book I found myself amazed by the amount of time I had wasted.
Where to begin? There are no words to express the hatred that I had and have towards this book. I'm sure everyone has experienced a read like this before. It is one of those god-awful books where you read and re-read a page asking yourself "Why am I doing this?". The plot is pretentious at best, full of shallow-yet-complex characters who offer little-to-nothing to the story. At times it actually felt as if Zadie had run out of ideas, and was typing everything that came to her mind. Truly, I could not say that half of the text was relevant to the story in any way.
Honestly, I felt absolutely no connection with any of the obnoxious characters in this book. After the first 100 pages, I put the book down and wished that Archie had just killed himself in the chapter. Who are these people? Why do I care? Can Archie be any more overbearing? I assure you, no matter how much time you spend dissecting this sorry excuse for a book, you will never be able to find anything that was truly unique or worth your read. I read this book last September and, for the life of me, I cannot remember anything more to this story than an irritating British man who marries a toothless woman.
Please. Unless this book is required reading, save your money, spend time with your family, or just sit on the couch and stare at the ceiling. I would not recommend it to my worst enemy.
Book Review: Caustic Wit and Irreverent Humor
Summary: 5 Stars
I found this novel to be thoroughly entertaining having read it at the urgings of a friend of mine, a professor who selected this as one of a handful of novels he used to teach a cultural collisions course on Muslim culture. The novel revolves around two, dysfunctional families, one a mix of Caucasian and Jamaican, and the other, supplanted Bengalis. The backdrop is Willesden, a London borough. Through the character's perspectives, we become privy to the tribulations of the South Asian ethnic community. A caustically witty book, White Teeth takes on a variety of issues, from religious activism to genetic engineering, and very cleverly brings these issues to the reader's attention through some of the innate absurdities of these same issues. For instance, Smith practically skewers the Jehovah's Witnesses and their penchant for mistakenly "prophesying" the End of the World. Giving equal time to Muslims, Smith also takes on the strictures of Islam. One of the main characters, Samad Iqbal, makes a pact with God forswearing masturbation in exchange for drinking; both Islamic taboos. Samad, who is a "faithful" Muslim, has a difficult time following all the tenets of his religion. Smith's novel reminds me of Hanif Kureishi's The Buddha of Suburbia, another humorous take on an ethnic family living dysfunctionally in England. Both are written in an extremely irreverent, yet clever manner, where East and West clash not only on the streets, but also in the homes of these supplanted families. But Smith takes her caustic tone to a higher plane than Kureishi, her wit and insight shines through on virtually every page.