Meredith's review
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
Ah, so awesome. And really amazing as a first novel. Zadie Smith certainly is ballsy, as she set out to write her first book and decided it should tackle themes of racism, prejudice, clashes of cultures, immigration, cultural assimilation, generational conflict, religion, love, coming of age, raising children, genetic engineering, war, memory, heritage, and honor, to name a few. And usually, when I read a book that tries to deal with such overwhelming and essential themes, the ending is pretty much "well, I've written a bunch of pages, and since these are problems that can't really be solved, I'm going to arbitrarily end here with a pithy statement. Have fun finding closure." Smith succeeds in writing an ending that is a complete shock, but makes complete sense in the story. She gives you enough epilogue for you to get a glimpse of how the characters fared after the plot ended, but also enough room to think for yourself about where the action would go from the closing pages. ...more
DUDE I read this over the summer and it was amazing! I read it in India so the whole Indian immigrant experience in England was a bit more relatable (but he wasn't indian, what was he...bah). I am almost done with "On Beauty" but i definitely like White Teeth better. Hope all's well MerMann!
