White Teeth Smith, Zadie

The book explores the questions of identity, roots, diaspora with absolute ingenuity... And there's no simple answer to any of these questions..

The book was in okay condition. There were few cracked edges and dirt.

Is White Teeth a good book? Yes, probably – it ticks a lot of boxes for me. It has characters with detail, it is the product of a lot of research which means just reading the book you will learn a lot, it really gets into the immigrant experience (something I love reading about) and a dark humour based on stereotypes permeates the length of the book. So yes,a zany, educational and fun read.Is White Teeth however a book I would recommend to someone? Grab the person next to me and go – please read this? The answer to this is no. And I had the feeling of it being something I had to get over with by page 100.Am trying to put my finger on what exactly about did not quite work:– Exhausting, 500 + page story. Don’t get me wrong, I love long novels however a lot of the background and the detail is purely incidental to the story. 3 generations of all the characters from varying PoVs – a detailed job for sure however beyond what most readers can digest. Needed a sharper editor for sure– Complex plot, which meanders along and along and along : see above.– Veering from character to character, with differing level of detail. There has to be an anchor or a central character. We start off with 2 central characters and there families, then someone like Joshua turns up and suddenly becomes super important while we completely lose a Clara whom I’m invested in. The Root Canals are especially excruciatingly difficult to relate to beyond a point..– Am all for stereotypes, but with the exception of Arie – most of the characters ended up as completely unlikable and exaggerated and after a point of time, unreal– Also repetitively hammering the point in, see : the O’Connors track, Jehovah’s Witness’ trackMaybe more interesting, useful and relate-able for someone with a British background. For the rest – an interesting experience without a ROI on it.

Nice book to be read

Frankly, I found the storyline a wad confused and too stretched. The Zadie has tried to deal with the identity crisis being faced by second generation of the imigrants of UK - like Samad. (Actually, an Indian reader can get totally confused - Samad claims that Mangal Pandey is his great grandfather. While Samad is a muslim, Mangal Pande is a hindu, and the transition is not touched upon. Also, there are no historical records that he ever married or had direct descendants While this may sound trivial , but Zadie made it a core of the story when toward the end, Millat is trying to emulate Mangal Pandey)Aside this, the main grouse i had with this book is the rambling plot, putting the readers to slumber many a time. Zadie does try to bring together the various issues being faced by teenagers in 90's - a lack of purpose, issues around identity and a misconstrued concept of religion. It also brings to fore the crisis that the parents face, as they expect their children to continue their culture forward. But the writing meanders off somewhere in between with unwarranted episodes - like the one with Samad and the teacher in school . And the characters in the cafe just added too many words with little to contribute to the plot.This book is definitely not on my recommended list

A must read. Can even say it is ahead of its times.

Good

Initially i didn't like to read the book, but when i came across three chapters i got along with the characters and found it quiet interesting. Smith's sense of humour is remarkable. At one instance when i was reading the novel, i laughed too loudly. Towards the end of the novel, i felt the urge to complete the book because it made me to read intensely. But the novel does not create any impact upon the readers. we can just read it for pleasure.