"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
The story travels through Jamaica, Turkey, Bangladesh and India but ends up in a scrubby North London borough, home of the book's two unlikely heroes: prevaricating Archie Jones and intemperate Samad Iqbal. They met in the Second World War, as part of a "Buggered Battalion" and have been best friends ever since. Archie marries beautiful, buck-toothed Clara, who's on the run from her Jehovah's Witness mother, and they have a daughter, Irie. Samad marries stroppy Alsana and they have twin sons: "Children with first and last names on a direct collision course. Names that secrete within them mass exodus, cramped boats and planes, cold arrivals, medical checks."
Big questions demand boldly drawn characters. Zadie Smith's aren't heroic, just real: warm, funny, misguided and entirely familiar; reading their conversations is like eavesdropping. A simple scene, Alsana and Clara chatting about their pregnancies in the park: "A woman has to have the private things--a husband needn't be involved in body business, in a lady's ... parts."
Samad's rant about his sons--"They have both lost their way. Strayed so far from what I had intended for them. No doubt they will both marry white women called Sheila and put me in an early grave--acutely displays "the immigrant fears--dissolution, disappearance" but it also gets to the very heart of Samad.
White Teeth is a joy to read. It teems with life and exuberence and has enough cleverness and irreverent seriousness to give it bite. --Eithne Farry
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Book Description Pocket Books. Condition: New. Publisher overstock, may contain remainder mark on edge. Seller Inventory # 9780241981399B
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Zadie Smith's astonishingly accomplished first novel, available as a Penguin Essential for the first timeEarly in the morning, late in the century, Cricklewood BroadwayOne of the most talked about first novels ever, White Teeth is a funny, generous, big-hearted novel, adored by critics and readers alike. Dealing - among many other things - with friendship, love, war, three cultures and three families over three generations, one brown mouse, and the tricky way the past has of coming back and biting you on the ankle, it is a life-affirming, riotous must-read of a book. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780241981399
Book Description paperback. Condition: New. Language: ENG. Seller Inventory # 9780241981399
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. BRAND NEW ** SUPER FAST SHIPPING FROM UK WAREHOUSE ** 30 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE. Seller Inventory # 9780241981399-GDR
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Book Description Paperback / softback. Condition: New. New copy - Usually dispatched within 4 working days. Seller Inventory # B9780241981399
Book Description Condition: New. Series: Penguin Essentials. Num Pages: 560 pages. BIC Classification: FA. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 181 x 111. . . 2017. Paperback. . . . . Seller Inventory # V9780241981399
Book Description Condition: New. Series: Penguin Essentials. Num Pages: 560 pages. BIC Classification: FA. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 181 x 111. . . 2017. Paperback. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland. Seller Inventory # V9780241981399