White Teeth by Zadie Smith

White Teeth (Penguin Celebrations) (Vintage International) (Penguin Ink) (Barnes & Noble Reader's Companion)

by Zadie Smith

A comic epic of multicultural Britain by one of the most exciting young writers of 2000. In this irrestible extended family saga, Zadie Smith brings us a fiercely witty tale of immigrants in England over a period of forty years. In this, her first novel, she pens a fresh and funny portrait of modern England - with all the inventiveness of Amis and the humanity of Jeanette Winterson - while offering up insights into British sub-cultures that are all her own. WHITE TEETH takes a sideways glance at the history of a multicultural island, and creates a stylish melting pot - at once cynical, moving, and very, very funny.

Reviewed by funbreaker4opal on

1 of 5 stars

Share
FORGET IT. This book is a total slog to get through. It's somehow too dense for me and too thin at the same time. The POV abruptly changes. You're supposed to end the scene when the POV character leaves it. And the thing I hate the most, even though it's only the cherry on the soul-crusher sundae? The needlessly "accented" dialog. Never make your foreigner characters sound like they came out of a restaurant commercial, e.g., an Italian saying "They're-a taking-a my pizza!". It's extremely distracting, always puts cracks in the suspension of disbelief, and is sometimes downright unreadable.

Last modified on

Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 22 October, 2018: Finished reading
  • 22 October, 2018: Reviewed