White Teeth

Certainly a 21^st century writing style with today’s book, which actually took me quite some time to read, 5 days in all (off and on!).  Starting to get busy in the office, so not as much time to read.  White Teeth by Zadie Smith was a National Best Selling book and I can see why.  In fact if you are really interested in understanding more on the motivation and other tidbits on the book, listen to an interview with the author, pretty good stuff:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/133_wbc_archive_new/page5.shtml.

The story shares the lives of two men whose life crossed while in the war, an Englishman and a Bangladeshi man (who served in the war for England too!).  The book moves to the present time 1990s and then back to the war itself when the two men were saved by getting lost in the village while the rest of their troupe were killed.  While my early introduction may seem as a pretty serious introduction to this story, as was the introduction where one of the two men, Archie Jones, attempts to commit suicide in his car in the front of a butcher’s store until the butcher sends his son to go out and have the man move.  You get a flavor that this book has a very fine line of laugh out loud moments, for sure.  We learn the impact of religion, politics, and children who don’t do as their parents want them to believe in and do for a living (ahhh… I’m at that age where that is starting to kick in).  Smith’s humor and ability to show how the fundamentalist act in our culture are a stark departure to what many of the liberal minded people do today.  The four parts of the book capture the storyline of the men’s life journey, and that of their children, the twin boys and daughter.  The Jewish/Catholic/Jehovah Witness/Muslim faith clash and science and experimentation on mice – how do we use our scientific knowledge to move our learnings further and the role of the sexual experimentation (differently focused from the days of their parents!).  While there wasn’t a complete “through line,” Smith shows the challenge of being an immigrant, albeit for me as an “immigrant reader” as the story is based in Britain (some things I probably missed not being keenly aware of their culture).   Brothers clash in ideology and their pursuit of woman and living with different beliefs from their parents.  The title has an interesting play with subchapter titles and also the role of teeth for the characters.   Not your classic linear reading, but if in the mood should get a chuckle and an eye into how we as a culture clash with so much difference between us.  An above average, but slow read.  A long book!