First I'll say I loved her book "White Teeth." This, her second book, "not so much," as the proverbial "they" say. But, literally, "not so much as the first one." Some of the same strengths here: zany and completely believable characters, unexpectedly ordinary life actions made special by the acuity of her observation, delightful irrelevances, racial/ethnic diversity, and life-forms that are not intellectual professional-class white American guys. Nothing wrong with IP-CWAGs, just--it's nice to meet other people from other worlds. And Alex-Li and his friend Adam are definitely from other worlds: there is a plot here, and it's okay, and fun, and far from cliche. But the richness of the book may come from its structure loosely built around a Kabbalah, a pattern of Hebrew characters and words)in which Jimmy Steward is "Tif'eret" meaning Beauty (Rahamim) or compassion, Fats Waller labelled "Hesed" (Love, Grace)while Virginia Woolf is Wisdom ("Hochmah") and Mohammed Ali is "Yesod," Foundation.
Read it for the fun. Another structuring device is a book Alex-Li Tandem, the main character, is writing: "Jewishness and Goyishness" which builds perhaps on a riff by Lenny Bruce: "Negroes are all Jews, Italians are all Jews. Irishmen who have rejected their religion are Jews....Baton-twirling is very goyish." Buddhism makes its appearance early and often, and the book is altogether the best quick source of information about the value of autographs of old Hollywood stars. Curiously, Zadie Smith (woman writer) draws more concise male characters than female, and more of them, a characteristic true of "White Teeth" as well. Second reading.