White Teeth by Zadie Smith

Having been recently disappointed by Infinite Jest and The Emperor’s Children, both hugely acclaimed novels, I was extremely skeptical of White Teeth at first. Given its length (over 400 pages) and hype (one of Time Magazine’s Best 100 Novels), it looked like I was headed towards another overrated disappointment.

I was wrong.

Zadie Smith’s debut novel is a hilarious, sophisticated, and poignant look at race, religion, and culture in late 20th century London. The novel is divided into four parts, and each part focuses on one of three families: the Joneses, the Iqbals, and the Chalfens. The story begins with Archie Jones, an out-of-luck recent divorcee who, after a failed suicide attempt, meets Clara Bowden at a New Years party in 1975. Clara has just escaped from her dominating Jehovah’s Witness mother Hortense, who had just converted Clara’s love interest Ryan Topps and thereby interrupting any possible romance. Despite their differences (he’s middle-aged and white; she’s Caribbean and 19), Archie and Clara are married six weeks later. They produce a daughter named Irie around the same time Archie’s best friend Salmad has twin sons.

Salmad Iqbal, a Bangladeshi, met Archie while they were both fighting in World War II. Part 2 gives more insight into Salmad, particularly his struggles with Western society. He is torn between his deep Muslim faith and his growing attraction to his twin sons Magid and Millat’s music teacher, Poppy Burt-Jones. Poppy is all-too-eager at learning more about Salmad’s culture; she even believes him when he makes up fictional holidays just to impress her. As their attraction heats up, Salmad is ridden with guilt. As an act of repentance, he decides to kidnap Magid and send him to Bangladesh, away from any “corrupt” Western influence. Things don’t go as well as planned, however; Magid is more influenced by Western secular humanism than Islam.

The highly intellectual Chalfens enter the picture when Irie and Millat are both in their teens. Marcus Chalfen is a well-respected scientist, and his wife Joyce is a writer of gardening books. Despite the fact that Joyce often unknowingly blurts out racist remarks (she asks Millat’s cousin Neena if it’s difficult for Muslim women to bake while wearing “those long black sheets”), the Chalfen home provides a haven for Irie and Millat, who are both struggling to find their places in the world. Millat is caught between the world of partying and a radical Islamic group called KEVIN, while Irie is terribly self-conscious and harbors a secret crush on Millat. This catering to Irie and Millat causes Josh Chalfen to feel he’s being replaced, and rebels by joining a group of animal rights extremists. Tensions rise even further between the Chalfens, Joneses, and Iqbals with Marcus’ controversial FutureMouse project, a genetic experimentation on a mouse…with Magid assisting Marcus.

There are two main obstacles the characters struggle with, and the first is a sense of identity. In a multi-racial melting pot London, everyone goes to great lengths to find their own unique sense of self. Clara loses both her Jamaican accent and her belief in God as a way to distance herself from her mother. Salmad’s fear of Western society’s negative influence makes him put all his hope in his eldest son (by two minutes) to carry on traditional family values. Millat and Josh get caught up in radical ideologies to rebel against their fathers. The second obstacle the characters struggle with is the past. Either they’re running from it (Irie’s great-grandfather was a white English captain who abandoned Hortense’s mother), or clinging onto to it (Salmad claims that his great-grandfather, Mangal Pande, was a hero in spite of historians’ objections). The only character that is not bogged down by the past is Archie, until the very end when it comes back to slap him in the face.

When White Teeth was first published in 2000, critics were amazed that Smith was only 25 at the time. There’s a tremendous amount of maturity in Smith’s writing style, way beyond her years. Her prose is clear, detailed, and flows naturally. The characters are well-developed and sympathetic. Also, Smith has a wonderful sense of humor; try not to laugh at her dead-on observations. If there are any flaws, there are minor things, like a piece of dialogue that’s out of place in a scene or two. But these are small things that writers get better at over time.

Hype can be a dangerous thing. The more something is built up, the more disappointing it is when it doesn’t measure up to one’s expectations. But White Teeth lives up to the hype, and introduces Zadie Smith as one of the best new contemporary writers.