448 pages
English language
Published May 10, 2001
White Teeth is a 2000 novel by the British author Zadie Smith. It focuses on the later lives of two wartime friends—the Bangladeshi Samad Iqbal and the Englishman Archie Jones—and their families in London. The novel is centred around Britain's relationships with people from formerly colonised countries in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean.The book won multiple honors, including the 2000 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction, the 2000 Whitbread Book Award in category best first novel, the Guardian First Book Award, the Commonwealth Writers First Book Prize, and the Betty Trask Award. Time magazine included the novel in its list of the 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.
This is the one book where I was the most disappointed, I read it but never understood or enjoyed the characters in the book
'Oh no, Archibald, no,' whispered Samad, melancholic. 'You don't believe that. You must live life with the full knowledge that your actions will remain. We are creatures of consequence, Archibald,' he said, gesturing to the church walls. 'They knew it. My great-grandfather knew it. Some day our children will know it.'
Wish I could go 3 1/2 on this one! It was an enjoyable read, but didn't really start to grab me until halfway through. What was most valuable for me was a lens on racial identity from an explicitly colonial perspective. Yes, American is a colonial power as well, but one that goes to great lengths pretending otherwise; Britain never hid this identity from itself and thus seems to have racial dynamics with a different cast. The dialogue is great, the characters three-dimensional, but I found the plot frustrating at times.
not feeling it. Maybe later.
