White Teeth

OEHFICE · Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 11:37 pm

I recently finished reading White Teeth, a 2000 novel by Zadie Smith. She's a British author and just by reading her book, I'm now a fan of hers.

White Teeth is about the lives of two wartime friends, Archie Jones and Samad Iqbal and their families in London. It's a very cultural book and it deals with friendship, love, and war. It's a great read and it's also hilarious. Be warned though, It's not a typical PG-13 novel and it can get racy in some parts. But that does not take away from the fact that it's a great novel.

The novel begins with Archie Jones, who is in his mid-40s and he is so disturbed that he's considering suicide, but then at a party, he meets a young Jamaican named Clara. They end up marrying and they have a girl, Irie.

Samad is an immigrant from Bangladesh. He also ends marrying a younger woman, Alsana. Their marriaged is based on a arrangement. They have twin boys, Millat and Magid, who are the same age as Irie.

The book focuses on these individuals and their supporting characters such as Neena, Alsana's lesbian cousin. Hortense, Clara's mom, who is a Jehova's Witness. Ryan Topps, Clara's boyfriend during her teen years. The characters from O'Connell's Poolroom, which oddly enough is run by Arabs, which becomes Archie and Samad's hang out spot.

Along the way, the lives of the Iqbals and the Jones' families mesh with the Chalfens, a Jewish-Catholic family of Oxford educated individuals. Marcus Chalfen is a geneticist who works on a controversial FutureMouse project that everyone seems to take part in one way or another.

If you're up for a book with gutsy writing and are open-minded then White Teeth is a must-read.

poggles · Posted: Sun May 13, 2007 2:14 am

That sounds kinda cool! O_o
Although, not something I want to read at the moment...I'm in the middle of my second book set in London during times when everyone was poor... Both the main characters have been best friends with a prostitute and go through heaps of depressing stuff... SO, Maybe I'll keep this book in mind as something to read later.

If anyone's interested...the two books I've been reading were
"Eliza Rose" by Mary Hooper: A girl during the 1600's gets thrown out of home and goes to London to look for her father. Eventually falls in with a girl who's a prostitute trying to get employment with the king, and ends up doing all this stuff that the really poor girls do (but draws the line at prostitution). Eventually she finds her family who promise to look after her and the book ends.

and

"Bowery Girl" by Kim Taylor: I actually don't know this one properly cos I haven't finished reading it, but so far it's about two girls who live in a tenement...One's a prostitute and one's a pickpocket. It tells a bit about their life and how they're having trouble paying the rent and stuff, and the last thing that happens is they enroll in classes which teach them enough so they can get a 'proper' job.