3 Review(s)

White Teeth narrates the story of two wartime friends and their families, Archie Jones, an Englishman and Samad Iqbal, a Bangladeshi. It is a witty classic that paints an unforgettable picture of London. Summary Of The Book White Teeth manages to skillfully blend both tragedy and wit, while portraying the dilemmas of immigrants and their families as they come face to face with a new and alien society. It also attempts to bring out the cultural aspects of the non-British. Some of the characters are used to mock the middle and working class in Britain. The book takes the reader into the lives of Archie Jones, a 47-year old Englishman and Samad Iqbal, a Bengali Muslim hailing from Bangladesh, who are friends since 1945, when they were part of a tank crew during the last few days of World War II. Samad finds it extremely difficult to stick to the tenets of Islam in an otherwise English life as he constantly faces conflicts on his moral character such as drinking and an affair with his children’s music teacher. The lives of both the Joneses and Iqbals further entwine with that of a Jewish-Catholic family, the Chalfens, who symbolise the liberal mind of North Londoners. White Teeth is a life-affirming and hilarious book that has the characters dealing, among many other things, with love, friendship, war, and the clash of three cultures belonging to three diverse families spread over three generations. White Teeth is the winner of numerous honours and awards such as the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, Whitbread Book Award, Betty Trask Award, Guardian First Book Award and Commonwealth Writers First Book Prize. The book was adapted into a four-part television series that stars Om Puri and Phil Davis. About Zadie Smith Zadie Smith is an essayist, novelist and writer of short stories. Some of her other book are NW, On Beauty and The Autograph Man. She was born on October 25, 1975, as Sadie Smith in Brent, London. After studying at Malorees Junior School and Hampstead Comprehensive School, she graduated from King’s College, Cambridge University in English Literature. She teaches Creative Writing at New York University. Smith was included on the 2003 and 2013 Grant’s list of 20 best young authors. She is the winner of the 2006 Orange Prize for Fiction. Presently, she lives with her husband and two children and divides her time between New York City and Queen's Park, London.