Date Finished: April 7th 2019
2019 has proved nonfiction heavy thus far, so it’s time to get back to fiction. One author I’ve wanted to delve into for a while now is Zadie Smith, who has been shortlisted for the Man Booker, won the Women’s Prize for Fiction, and has reached general acclaim during her career. I went with her debut novel (because it happened to be on my shelf, more than anything else): White Teeth.
White Teeth follows the travails of three families, the Jones’s, the Iqbals and the Bowdens, over three generations. Archie Jones, a white Brit, and Samad Iqbal, of Bangladesh, the patriarchs of the families, were brought together as soldiers in WWII; Archie marries Clara Bowden, a young Jamaican expat, and Samad is married to his arranged bride Alsana. The two couples become friends and raise their children: Irie Jones, and the twins Magid and Mallit Iqbal. The past, present and future of the families are intertwined in love, war and friendship over the decades.
“And don’t ever underestimate people, don’t ever underestimate the pleasure they receive from viewing pain that is not their own, from delivering bad news, watching bombs fall on television, from listening to stifled sobs on the other end of a telephone line. Pain by itself is just Pain. But Pain + Distance can = entertainment, voyeurism, human interest, cinema verite, a good belly chuckle, a sympathetic smile, a raised eyebrow, disguised contempt.”
Rather than State-of-the-Nation, it’s State-of-Immigration; a witty and humane insight into life for first- and second-generation expats. With a blistering sense of humour but also irrepressible warmth, Smith explores the various ways in which immigrants negotiate the stranger-in-a-strange land dilemma of growing up outside of one’s home country: identity, nationality, racism, freedom, the clash of civilisations, finding something to stand for, and the way in which history has a rather irritating tendency to repeat itself.
Smith’s prose proves effortless to read, yet rich; full of vitality and movement. She had me laughing on the first page, and kept it up long after. Time and time again descriptions and phrasing jumped out as perfectly crafted, beautifully put, and downright hilarious. Smith knows and loves her characters too, and we come to know them inside-out; these are people so fully-formed that you grow to love them for all their flaws (and there are many). They are multi-faceted, complex, fascinating, and it’s hard not to become invested in their stories.
“She learnt quickly that Ryan was a man of painfully few words and that the rare conversations they had would only ever concern Ryan: his hopes, his fears (all scooter-related) and his peculiar belief that he and his scooter would not live long. For some reason, Ryan was convinced of the ageing fifties motto ‘Live fast, die young’, and, though his scooter didn’t do more than 22 m.p.h. downhill, he liked to warn Clara in grim tones not to get ‘too involved’, for he wouldn’t be here long; he was ‘going out’ early and with a ‘bang’.”
White Teeth also tackles a number of other issues, including religion, scientific advances, coming-of-age and growing old, as well as delving into a variety of eras and countries. Smith really sinks her teeth (sorry) into all of these subjects, and has clearly thoroughly researched every domain she covers. Nothing ever feels phoned in or skimmed over.
Smith’s debut is an astonishingly strong work, relentlessly enjoyable and refreshingly engaging. There’s very little to dislike and, although it’s a little long, it proved to be one of the best novels I’ve read in months. Compelling characters, a number of arcs, meditations on all sorts of topics. This is what I come to literature for, and I find it so rarely that White Teeth will definitely rank among the better works of fiction I read this year.
8/10
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