Summary of White Teeth
“White Teeth” centres on two friends and their families in north-west London from the 1970s to the 1990s: Archie Jones, an Englishman married to the much younger Clara Bowden, a woman of Jamaican descent, and Samad Iqbal, a Bangladeshi immigrant who works as a waiter in an Indian restaurant. Samad struggles to reconcile his Muslim faith with life in England, while attempting to raise his twin sons, Magid and Millat, as devout Bengalis. As they grow up, both boys search for their own identities, and at one point each becomes romantically involved with Irie, the daughter of Archie and Clara. The novel’s action ranges widely, touching on themes of religion, immigration, the legacy of the past, parenthood, eugenics, animal rights and the pressures of urban life.
Reasons to read White Teeth
“White Teeth” is, at heart, a novel about Britain’s complex relationship with immigration, told through the stories of two multicultural families in late twentieth-century London. The plot is expansive, with numerous characters and intersecting storylines. It offers an optimistic portrayal of a multicultural Britain—long before Brexit—and is animated by sharp and witty dialogue. “White Teeth” is the debut novel of the English author Zadie Smith. It became a bestseller and received several literary prizes, including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Whitbread First Novel Award, the Guardian First Book Award, and the Betty Trask Award. It has appeared on many “best of” lists, such as Time magazine’s 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels published since 1923; The Guardian’s 2019 list of the 100 best books of the twenty-first century; and BBC News’ 2019 list of the 100 most influential novels. In 2006, Smith won the Orange Prize for Fiction for her later novel “On Beauty”.
Setting: Willesden, London (England, UK)
Original title: White Teeth
Year of publication: 2000
Nr of pages: 464
