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A review of White Teeth

by Zadie Smith

A biting insight into postwar, multicultural London

Reviewed by: Helen Harvey
About Helen Harvey

White Teeth 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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