White Teeth by Zadie Smith

This book, Smith's first weaves the stories of two families in England who come into contact by the most unlikely of circumstances. Archie Jones and Samad Iqbal meet during the war, and become best friends for life. Samad dreams of good ancestry and honour from war while Archie battles grim depression after he splits up with his wife. Eventually the story follows on to Archie marrying a much younger, Jamaican woman and Samad marrying a woman of young age as well as of his race (Bengali). The story then begins to weave the stories with the many different perspectives of children of the two couples as well as friends of them.

This book has received both rave reviews and bad reviews. I personally think it is spectacular, although there are a lot of plot lines as it spans many years, it tells of the traumas and celebrations of both families with a bit of humour thrown in as well.

You can tell the author has great intellect and observation skills from her accurate portrayal of life in a middle class environment, with the ups and downs of being an ethnic minority and how it affects the choices of both Samad and his two twin boys who are brought up in different countries and also Archie and Clara and their daughter Irie who battles her own demons throughout the book.

It also battles the issue of the boredom of perfection when the Chalfen family is introduced, it speaks of Joyce Chalfen, the perfect housewife with the perfect successful husband and perfectly behaved children who have high aspirations. With the introduction of both Irie and Millat (one of Samad's sons) into the Chalfen life, it shows how she instantly takes Millat, the 'troubled' boy under her wing, as if suddenly she needs a new project. The issue of genetic engineering and cloning also plays a part as the father of the Chalfen family, Marcus who creates the 'FutureMouse', which will live ten years and has genes designed to further examine causes of cancer in humans. With the introduction of Millat, Irie and later Magid (Millat's brother) into the Chalfen way of life, this seemingly ordinary British family is thrown completely into disarray and it's very skilfully and believably done.

There are so many issues that this book battles so well, it is astounding that this was only Zadie Smith's first work. It is also something I would like to read again, because I know I've already forgotten some of the wonderful scenarios brought up in this book. It has been criticised as being too quick from one scenario to the next with too many plot-lines, however, I believe this is only a further demonstration of the complexities of family life, and although there it was a case of nearing the end of the book and it mentioning something and me having to read back to recap what it was, it definitely worked for the mood and the spirit of the book.

The one complaint I did have about the book is that I would have enjoyed a further exploration of the characters Clara and Magid. Understandable though as the book was already long and it would be impossible to take it in from every perspective. For Magid especially it also served as an illustration of his return confusing the characters as well, because he had been away for so long.

I definitely think this is a must-read and I would be keen to read more of Smith's work.