White Teeth

published	June 12th 2001 by Vintage
binding	Paperback
isbn	0375703861 (isbn13: 9780375703867)
pages	464
literary awards	2000 Guardian First Book Award; 2000 National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist; 2000 Orange Prize Nominee
description	Epic in scale and intimate in approach, White Teeth is a formidably ambitious debut. First novelist Zadie Smith takes on race, sex, class, his...more [close] 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. Not all of White Teeth is so amusingly carnal. The mixed blessings of assimilation, for example, are an ongoing torture for Samad as he watches his sons grow up. "They have both lost their way," he grumbles. "Strayed so far from what I had intended for them. No doubt they will both marry white women called Sheila and put me in an early grave." These classic immigrant fears--of dilution and disappearance--are no laughing matter. But in the end, they're exactly what gives White Teeth its lasting power and undeniable bite. --Eithne Farry [close]
date added	12-03-06 edit book

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Ben rated it:

07/15/07

bookshelves: 2007

Read in May, 2007

White Teeth is an expansive, detailed, and beautifully written attempt to encapsulate the social chaos that blossoms at the bridging of generational, national and sexual mindsets. It reminds me very much of the freeflowing histories written by Marquez and Allende, as well as Salman Rushdie's strange little one-off treatise on cultural alienation, Fury. (Samad, in particular, reminds me quite a bit of Fury's Malik Solanka.)

The book does many things well. Smith has a serious ear for dialogue a...more White Teeth is an expansive, detailed, and beautifully written attempt to encapsulate the social chaos that blossoms at the bridging of generational, national and sexual mindsets. It reminds me very much of the freeflowing histories written by Marquez and Allende, as well as Salman Rushdie's strange little one-off treatise on cultural alienation, Fury. (Samad, in particular, reminds me quite a bit of Fury's Malik Solanka.)

The book does many things well. Smith has a serious ear for dialogue and accent, she knows how to manage the flow and pacing of a story, and she's quite skilled at employing large concepts (genetic manipulation, immigrant psychology, the concept of history itself) both as fact and as metaphor. Her cast of characters is varied and nearly every one of them comes off as a fully flesh and blood human being. However, it's in terms of these personalities that I feel she makes her biggest misstep.

Zadie Smith is what I'd call an Ironist. I don't mean this in the Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, Jon Stewart sense. I don't mean that she's a comedian. I mean it in the sense that the territory she stands on--that her narrator in White Teeth stands on--is one whose boundaries are staked out in terms of what she is not. My friend Brandon commented below that Smith shows "blatant contempt for every character except the one who is clearly based on the author." While I understand where he's coming from, I don't think it's contempt per se. On the contrary, I think Smith has deep feelings for most of her characters--even the more despicable ones like Crispin and Millat. I think that what Brandon interprets as contempt is something far more ambiguous: let's call it detached superiority.

The Ironist defines herself through the process of over-defining others. Every character in this novel is over-defined, over-drawn. While this provides us with a great, at times excruciating level of detail, it also paints each of them into a kind of cage wherein all of their actions are predictable. Each of them has a sort of "final vocabulary" (cf. Rorty) that defines the limits of what they might do or say--the doctrines of Islam and the Watchtower Society, of PETA or clinical science. In the worst cases, their adherence to these vocabularies allows Smith to slip them into easy "types" (see: Mr. Topps, Crispin, Joshua, Marcus, the various members of FATE). Smith creates her authorial/narrative identity--what's called a metastable personality--by passively proving that she is not limited by such a final vocabulary, and that in escaping their confines she has a broader, more comprehensive view of the social workings of the world. This is, generally speaking, the goal of any omniscient narrator, but the way that Smith goes about writing this one in particular imparts a certain sense of smugness (the parenthetical asides to the reader, the knowing winks, the jokes at the expense of easy targets) that isn't always present.

The metastable personality is the natural reaction to uncomfortability with final vocabularies, but it itself is of course just as self-defining as any of them (albeit in the opposite direction). It instinctually yearns for instability, but prefers to admire chaos from afar rather than living in it. The metastable personality knows that in order to maintain coherence it must remain stable, and that the only way to remain stable is to balance itself on the disbelief of all known final vocabularies. Smith writes off worldview after worldview, but is of course unable to articulate her own because her own is simply the absence of adherence to any such worldview.

This isn't so much a criticism of Smith's work as it is an explanation of why it is the way it is, and why it can be read as contempt. ...less

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5 comments

Simika rated it:

07/06/08

All in all, an interesting read. I am still unsure if Smith knowingly called Alsana’s family “the Begums” to make it easier for the average non-Bengali reader to understand or if it’s a mistake. Either way, I must say it bugged me a lot when I read that Samad was going to marry one of the Begum kids, and when Neena introduced herself as one of the Begums, and not the Iqbals…etc.

I’m also not sure how Samad Iqbal could be related to Pandey. Or why Zinat Aunty would keep her role i...more All in all, an interesting read. I am still unsure if Smith knowingly called Alsana’s family “the Begums” to make it easier for the average non-Bengali reader to understand or if it’s a mistake. Either way, I must say it bugged me a lot when I read that Samad was going to marry one of the Begum kids, and when Neena introduced herself as one of the Begums, and not the Iqbals…etc.

I’m also not sure how Samad Iqbal could be related to Pandey. Or why Zinat Aunty would keep her role in the kidnapping of Magid a secret.

Or why Bengali people would choose Millat and Magid as names for their children.

Or what role Joyce Chalfen really had.

What I liked about the book was the author herself. Somehow I couldn’t escape her voice in my head. It’s impossible not to feel as though somehow she’s witnessing the characters’ experiences first hand, without their knowledge, that she can read their minds, and is somehow there when things are happening to them. I guess what I mean is, she’s the omniscient creator and narrator. The events are important and interesting, but what is more so is how she reports them. Like a journalist. And it works. She’s brilliant and humorous at describing the mannerisms of her characters, at the observations of little cultural nuances and the way most of the characters are not black, white or gray but rather, colourful in their many flaws and some redeeming qualities.

I could not really relate to any one of the characters, mainly because I was more interested in knowing what Smith wanted to say,what she meant , than I was in trying to like Archie Jones or Clara Bowden Or Millat. They’re all quite complex - at least most of them are quite complex - and inconsistent like real-world people. But I often had the sense that Smith combined three or four people from the real world and stuffed them into each character. Moreover, Smith alternates between focusing on each of the characters to the point where you think they are the MAIN character and relegating them to a secondary status. By the time your feelings and perception of one of them are cemented, she starts on another character and you reluctantly (but definitely) have to move on as well.

It also dragged at quite a few places but then, I do have a short attention span. The ending of the story wasn’t quite satisfactory - at least, not for me; after reading 400 pages or so, the last 50 odd pages seemed a little bit of a let-down (but then again, most books usually are). But the disappointment is easy to let slide. In the end, what remains with you is the sense of having laughed out loud at many places, smiling through most of the rest and wanting to read more of Zadie Smith’s work.

I need to read the book one more time before deciding if I like it enough to list is as one of my some-time favourites. Like Smith herself said, “I have great ambitions of writing a very great book, I just don’t think this is it”. It isn’t. But I think someday there will be.

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Krys rated it:

02/06/08

Read in February, 2008

My trusted source of recommendations most decidedly did NOT recommend this book, but I admit that I liked it far better than her.

That being said, despite the wonderfully poignant moments that expose the complications interracial relations in London, the book felt very scattered. Divided into sections, each portion of the novel primarily focuses on one individual in a small circle of relevant characters. The sections also (more or less) progress in chronological order over fifty years, so the...more My trusted source of recommendations most decidedly did NOT recommend this book, but I admit that I liked it far better than her.

That being said, despite the wonderfully poignant moments that expose the complications interracial relations in London, the book felt very scattered. Divided into sections, each portion of the novel primarily focuses on one individual in a small circle of relevant characters. The sections also (more or less) progress in chronological order over fifty years, so the later sections include the children of the characters in the first two. The novel starts and ends with Archie, who is unfortunately the flattest character (ironically the least prejudiced it should be noted). He is largely useless throughout the two thirds of the book until the last few pages, which finally reveal a moment that happened to him from fifty years past. Such a move, awarding the significance allotted to the novel's last moments, suggests an importance to an event that has really had nothing to do with the story as a whole. And paired with the way in which Smith abandons all the tension she built over the last third of the novel with Archie's daughter, it leaves to wonder (alternately) what was the point of the first part of the story, or the second, because neither are followed through with due diligence. Which is not to say that I want to immediately write this work off as a failure for its untidy nature. Especially in light of the insightful moments sprinkled throughout the text, the abrupt end (with rather disappointing summaries for the characters I'd just become interested in) gives me pause, encourages me to look back and re-examine what the novel is about. Except that I feel that I should already know long before the last chapter.
Another note of contention is something I do in my own writing: address the reader as the author, 2nd person, extra-diagetic, a stepping away from the narrative at hand to explain . . . something writing faculty everywhere would tell you is a mark of an amateur, craftlessness. I'm not so sure I'm willing to go that far; these "missteps" often included ponderous sentiments that I rather enjoyed thinking about, but then again Smith is preaching to the choir to me. I'm sure I'd be less forgiving if I didn't feel cynical about the way culture constructs racial identity.

All in all despite what seems to be just a scattering of events colored by a wide variety of character perspectives, I still recommend the read solely because of its examination of the perpetuation of our beliefs about culture, progress, and the "other."...less

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Andrea rated it:

02/27/08

Read in February, 2008

recommends it for: those with dysfunctional familes

So far I'm not overly impressed with this book. I'm over 200 pages in and I have to say, not thoroughly entertained. The story lulls and it really isn't keeping my attention. I'm basically continuing to read it because I started it and I'm still hoping it picks up speed and the characters actually do something with their lives. I will say that I do like some of Smith's lines. She does have a nice way with words when it comes to describing human activity. Although she like to over use a lot of 14...more So far I'm not overly impressed with this book. I'm over 200 pages in and I have to say, not thoroughly entertained. The story lulls and it really isn't keeping my attention. I'm basically continuing to read it because I started it and I'm still hoping it picks up speed and the characters actually do something with their lives. I will say that I do like some of Smith's lines. She does have a nice way with words when it comes to describing human activity. Although she like to over use a lot of 14th century words like "odious". So for the time period she is writing for, WWII and the 1980s-90s, it seems a bit too much. It makes for a less than fun read, kind of clunky. And she repeats herself. The stories overlap in places so I feel like I'm rereading the story. So far, I think White Teeth is a bit overrated--young author with an ethnic background and critics jump all over it with praise. Hopefully more pages in, I'll update this with more praise, but for now, not so much.

--Ok so I finished it last night and I will say that I think Smith is pretty much an amazing writer. She writes with a seemingly unending fountain of knowledge. How she came up with the stuff on recombinant DNA and wrote about it so effortlessly, I would love to know. The ending made the book good for me, it tied up loose ends and even made me smile. I'm not sure if I'm going to read any more of her work, at least not in the near future, but this was a good book. I think I didn't like the first 200 pages because I didn't think the people were very good parents or role models. Samad was always angry even if his sons did succeed, he found a way to discredit them. Irie was my hero and found her way on her own and with style. The whole dad thing though, I'm still not sure why that was thrown in and then never explained....but anyway I digress. Good read!!

---I wanted to add, its been over a week since I've read this and its still stuck with me. At the grocery store I was behind this cute family and I was thinking, I wonder if they're Bengali or Pakistani? Smith has totally raised my knowledge of many things and that is the highest tribute a writer can hope to receive. I'm afraid to read another of her books because this one changed my life....less

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Dan rated it:

12/02/07

Read in December, 2007

This book started bad for me and just got worse. I found the characters to be boring and two-dimensional. Actually, even worse, the author tried to build up the characters in most cases (though doing a poor job, I'd say), but then later reduced their roles to caricatures. So even those I was inclined to like wound up irritating me every time they opened their mouths.

Further, Smith's style is all over the place. At times I found it indulgent and pretentious, others fawningly resembling ot...more

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Leslie rated it:

06/16/08

Read in June, 2008

As many other reviewers have commented, I wanted to like this book more than I did. It approached greatness in many ways---the clever and often hilarious dialogue, the quirky characters, the creative family histories, the rich and convincing place descriptions, and so on. Despite the strengths of each of these parts, as a whole the book fell far short of greatness. It took me until the final pages to figure out what was missing for me: I did not genuinely care about most of the characters. I did...more

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Mark rated it:

07/18/07

Read in April, 2006

recommends it for: fans of good fun fiction

Embrace your Inner Outcast!

Ever feel like something about you just doesn't quite fit in to the bigger picture of life that surrounds you? If so, pick up Zadie Smith's wonderful novel "White Teeth". Every single main character in the book is a well developed study of an inward focused outcast. The way the author strings these warped pearls of dysfunction into a funny, absorbing tale of life is laudable.

The outrageous beginnings of each character's plot line makes funneling thes...more

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Sunil rated it:

(review of isbn 0140297782)

02/22/08

bookshelves: reviews

It cant get any more post-modern than this; a pinnacle of post-modern literature, White Teeth, written in the winter of 20th century is an Hegelian synthesis of sorts. It has come to be the symbol of the contemporary fragmented world - an offspring of the marriage between the inescapable past ( an empire there was, a distant cold war and drifting faintness of World Wars) and the promise of future ( the dynamics of economic politics, pro-labour climate, a recently forged EU, growing env...more

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Kerfe rated it:

07/23/08

A few chapters in I went back and checked the publication date--as I suspected, before 9/11. I think there is an innocence in this book that would not have been present in the same story set after that event.

Zadie Smith see both sides--the appeal and the pitfalls, the pull of community and continuity and the hypocrisy and cynicism--not just of Muslim fundamentalism, but of tradition and the past in all cultures, of both secular and religious extremism and intolerance, and of the insular smu...more

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Mark rated it:

01/22/08

Read in January, 2008

Like any Zadie Smith title, "White Teeth" tackles many themes -- religion, culture, race, history, women's roles, sex, and she forces them all to clash. Interestingly, "White Teeth" does not pan out like a typical novel. Whereas other opuses exist on a linear or circular plain, "White Teeth's" story is more like a vortex. A whirlpool that sucks a billion different characters, themes, transitions and whatnot into a hodgepodge of a story, everything winding up at the ...more

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Ellen rated it:

08/26/07

Read in August, 2007

I enjoyed this book, despite being mildly repulsed by the first couple chapters. Generally, I don't like books where I don't like any of the characters, and this book was full of unlikable characters. Somehow, though, Zadie Smith still managed to make them sympathetic. The overall tone of the book was mocking, so at least I felt in league with the narrator in finding the characters' thoughts and actions ridiculous. But at the same time, I could identify with characters who make stupid decisi...more

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sydney rated it:

12/04/07

Read in November, 2007

Zadie Smith's first novel. It follows three families: the Iqbals, the Joneses, and the Chalfens, as their lives intertwine and fall apart, run parallel and cross paths, and eventually become so entangled that they're like one huge family-- one huge family where most of the members dislike each other. The story hinges on the Iqbal twins, Millat and Magid, whose father, Samad, decides to separate them in childhood to benefit the family, setting off a chain of events that culminates on New Year's...more

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Mariam rated it:

02/17/08

Read in February, 2008

I started reading this with no expectations, with little idea as to the identity of the author, the subject matter, and only with the knowledge that it had done well in the book market. I was pleasantly surprised in many ways.

First off, the characters are anything but predictable, and while I feel that the immigrant experience is very truthfully described, with incredible depth, insight, nuance, and sensitivity, the characters themselves were sort of unbelievable. That being said, this was...more

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Duncan rated it:

02/04/08

recommends it for: yo' momma

Dear Multi-generational immigrant fiction--
I have difficulty with you. I can understand the need for continuity, a sense of connection with the past, but all I can see with you is a target audience of middle aged white, (or any variation therein-twinkie, hoho, what have you) liberal women. Same goes for Middlesex, and Lipshitz Six, or Two Angry Blondes (not sorry I didn't finish you). Again, flash to mom killing these sorts of movies on the television. Flash again to mom laying generations...more

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Andrew rated it:

06/24/07

Read in June, 2005

recommends it for: those interested in colonial studies and britain today

I actually don't remember a whole lot of this book, except that it's coming back to me now. Actually it's a lot like a Stephen Frears movie, the title of which doesn't come immediately to mind. He does a lot of movies about class and race relations in Britain, mostly pretty fascinating stuff. But as I recall, Zadie Smith's book is different in that it really seeks to develop characters as characters, not just as the product of their surroundings bound to act the way they do based on their...more

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Crystal rated it:

03/15/08

Read in March, 2008

i feel obligated to write a review for this book, if only because when mel asked me what i thought of it and i replied "it was funny," she was disappointed at my lack of more detailed commentary [one of the reasons i heart her]. in some ways, i think this book is like the mutter museum. sometimes i felt like the characters were teratomas i wanted to touch or see more closely, but which were set out of reach behind impenetrable or foggy glass panes. perhaps smith crafted her characters ...more

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Jennifer rated it:

04/24/07

Read in February, 2007

recommends it for: Oprah-Club types

This one was hard to judge. I enjoyed the book...mostly. Smith seemed to be just dripping in ideas, and it appears that she tried to fit most of them in her first novel. There are parallels drawn between cross-pollination of plants and genetic engineering, parallels between the lives of fathers and sons, mothers and daughters (though each offspring believes the parents are revolting and each parent thinks their children as rebellious), of history and past and future. Smith jerks back and for...more

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Sil rated it:

05/27/08

Empecé este libro hace varios meses... es una pena, pero a veces me cuelgo y empiezo un libro nuevo, teniendo mas d euno aún pendientes.
Anyway, me acuerdo del momento en que lo dejé, y supongo que lo retomaré en algun momento más relajado.
Lo compré en inglés en Londres en su versión barata (hojas finitas medio amarillas). Me gusta eso que tienen los ingleses que te ofrecen los libros según tu cuenta bancaria, y si estás haciendo vida de estudiante, aparece el paperback y sino el H...more

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C. rated it: