Brown to White

I've been reading this book lately. For english. Does that make it any less worthy of critique? Does it make it "cheap" to write something about it? I think not. To be honest, I would not have come across this book if I hadn't had the opportunity to read it for an assignment. But now that I have chosen it, I feel that it was a good decision on my part, and I don't regret it a bit. Even though its a fair bit longer than Catcher in the Rye or The Secret River.

Oh yeah. The book is White Teeth by Zadie Smith.

This is her first book, and she has decided to write on the story of two families, are their relationships with each other. The families of Samad Iqbal and Archie Jones.

Both families are realistic, comprising what you might find in any ordinary family; bickering kids, bickering spouses, and violent spouses? Or not? Archie Jones is married to a black woman named Clara Bowden, who lost all of her teeth in a fall during her teen years. She is a good 15 or 20 years younger than him, although they seem to get alongwell enough.

Samad is married to Alsana, a young Indian woman who he was promised before she was born. That really made an impression on me. It's funny because for some reason, they always get in fights, and Alsana always wins. But all this tension and humour really adds to this book and makes it an interesting read.

This book, continuing on past Samad and Alsana's fighting and punching, details Samad's cheating, temptations, Archie's purpose in life, and the offspring of these two families mingling.

There are tons of other characters but they are of less significance. Actually, I lied. They're really important.

And this book won some random award in 2000 for the "Best First Book of 2000". Or something. Anyways, it's good. So read it. But Smith has a unique writing style, so prepared for a month of hard reading.

kamster