Teeth and Spies

by Giorgio Pressburer, Shaun Whiteside

This is the tragi-comic account of one man's life through the fate of his teeth; from the loss of his first milk tooth swallowed by his father in a prison camp, to the eventual fixture of a set of dentures. Devoting each chapter to a particular tooth, the unnamed narrator charts fifty years of East European history.
Having worked in numerous guises and a miscellany of trades and professions which involve journeys across the globe, our hero struggles with the demands and transformations of his body and, more importantly, his teeth. In each city he visits he seeks out dentists from his homeland. Key moments of his life and indeed the last half-century have uncanny parallels with his dental state of health. Swept up in the agitated course of history he becomes involved in secret plots and covert missions, whilst on a personal level he engages in endless affairs and ceaseless reflection on the meaning of life.
The reader may follow the story according to various different sequences.

260 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

pretty much everyone else i know who read this book didn't like it. i loved it. i loved the strange sort or fiction sort of philosophy writing style and i loved the conection of teeth to god. because they are connected to god because god is the brain. yeah, i totally loved this book. each chapter is a different tooth!

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise of this book is interesting: Each chapter's devoted to a tooth. Also, the main character is a spy. But I don't care much for the treatment of women in this book. There is, though, something to be said for finding an indirect route to telling an autobiographical tale.