The White of Zadie Smith's Teeth

It took me ages to get through Zadie Smith’s White Teeth – one of those books that everybody raves about and inevitably disappoints because of the high expectations put on it.

I’m not saying it is a bad book – it is in fact a rather good book. Smith explores the lives of two families of immigrants- the Jones and Iqbal families, eventually (oh yes, I mean eventually) settling on their children. Irie Jones is a quarter Jamaican. Her mother turned her back on her strict religious upbringing to marry Archie Jones, a much older Englishman. Twins Magid and Millat Iqbal suffer under their father’s desire to preserve the traditional Muslim and cultural background of his family. To this end, he sends Magid, the elder and more sensible of the two, back home to Bengal.

Irie grows up completely besotted with handsome womaniser Millat. After an incident at school, Irie and Millat become involved with the Chalfen family – a clan of English “intellectuals” – who are ironically narrow-minded in certain areas. The father is a famous scientist working on the Futuremouse genetic project – a project that ties together all the characters in the novel. Irie goes to work as Mr Chalfen’s assistant, but finds that it is Magid and Millat who are the real centre of attention. Chalfen begins communicating with Magid overseas – who returns as a man of science (rather than religion – stroke of irony number two). In irony number three, Millat joins a group of Muslim fundamentalists who violently oppose the Futuremouse project – as does Irie’s religious grandmother and the members of her bizarre church, who spend all their time attempting to calculate the end of the world. A whole lot of weirdness follows, including a perhaps unnecessary and unexplored link back to a story much earlier in the novel. Plus, Irie gets pregnant to either Magid or Millat after having slept with both in a strange mixture of desire, revenge and some desire for Millat to be the first son for once?????

There are a lot of interesting threads, although I am not sure Smith manages to pull them all together effectively. She begins to explore the parent generation, and then moves onto the children without really putting a lot of issues raised earlier in the book to bed. The ending feels contrived and the last few paragraphs are certainly tongue-in-cheek which left me feeling unsatisfied.

I have read somewhere that this is an “ambitious” book – and I would have to agree. I’m just not sure Smith managed to achieve her vision.

I also tried to get into her The Autograph Man, but am just not up for it at the moment. Stick with On Beauty – that was wonderful.

On Beauty...

This is an enormously rich text, and I could not possibly sum it up for you in this format. Too much to say! But I enjoyed the study of humanity that Smith puts forth – as well as her prose. Although some find her wordy… perhaps listening to it on CD makes a difference. It was a long but rewarding process.

On Beauty centres around the Belsey family, Howard and Kiki and their children Jerome, Zora and Levi. Each is dealing with something major in their life. Then, there is also the Kipps family, headed by Howard’s nemesis Sir Monty Kipps. Both patriarchs are academics. Monty is a more successful, ultra-conservative version of Howard, so obviously Howards abhors him. But as the book goes on, we find that they have more in common than otherwise assumed. A similar parallel is drawn between their wives, who strike up an unlikely friendship. Kiki is a big, loud beautiful black woman who is seriously questioning Howard’s success as a husband, whereas Carleen is a more traditional, demure housewife. She lives to support her brilliant husband, but never assumes she is his equal. She is also extremely ill.

Each of the children are in their own worlds – Jerome begins the novel by declaring his love for the daughter of Kipps – much to Howard’s dismay. Zora is also struggling with love, in a storyline that is very much caught up with class. The relationship that she has with penniless rapper Carl is fascinating. At first, she would like nothing more to avoid him, but in Carl’s desire to be a part of the world of the Wellington University elite, he ends up making the plain and dumpy Zora fall hard for him. Levi, usually the most carefree and self-absorbed of the Belsey’s, meets a group of Haitians, and becomes caught up in their plight.

A number of social and political themes underlie the story, as well as obvious references to E.M. Forster’s Howard’s End – a connection which bodes ominously for Howard and his mid-life existential crisis. However, a working knowledge of this text is not necessary for the enjoyment of this one. There is also a host of other fascinating characters and scenarios. Victoria Kipps, whom Jerome proposed to, is not at all as she appears. And one of my favourite scenes involves Howard – a professor of aesthetics who has woven emotional reaction out of his appreciation of the Arts, is brought to tears by the music played at a funeral.

I could never fully encapsulate all this is special about this text in one entry, so here are some links for further reading if you are interested. All I know is I will certainly be venturing into the work of Zadie Smith again.


http://www.oxonianreview.org/issues/5-1/5-1hay.html

http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/generalfiction/0,,1566399,00.html

http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/generalfiction/0,,1562117,00.html