by Zadie Smith
A biting insight into postwar, multicultural London
Reviewed by: Helen Harvey
About Helen Harvey
What Dickens did to capture Victorian London for
posterity in the annals of literature, so 24-year-old
Zadie Smith has done it for the metropolis, post World
War II. So consummate and engaging is her prose, in
this her debut novel, that it is little wonder she is
earning comparison to Rushdie and Proust, among other
literary greats.
Picking up with them in the 1970's, the tale recounts
the somewhat unlikely friendship between Archie, a
working-class white man, and Samad, a Muslim Bengali,
who meet in the British Army during the war, and
struggle through life's trials and tribulations in
riotous and haphazard fashion, as they strive to make
something of their postwar lives. The book is
hilarious, yet poignant, and captures the reality of
London - its sights, sounds, and smells with vivid,
and almost tangible, clarity.
The issues of ethnicity, class, family, and ignorance
are melded together in an extraordinarily colorful and
gripping read, that takes unexpected turns, and veers
off at the strangest tangents.
Already adapted for television, this book will
undoubtedly become a classic of the 21st century, and
is a must-read for Anglophiles and lovers of quality
contemporary fiction everywhere.
Click here to buy this book, or read more about it at Amazon.com: White Teeth
Copyright © by Helen Harvey, 2003
Reviewed by Helen Harvey:
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