Saturday, February 28, 2009

Zadie Smith, White Teeth

Zadie Smith, White Teeth. Hilarious and uncomfortable. Layers of commentary and strife. The Chalfens made me wince, probably because I've heard echos of their smugness in their eccentricity in my own head. I actually liked this better than On Beauty, because I liked the people better. Not that anyone was particularly admirable. Samad was possibly the least admirable but the most sympathetic - his hypocrisy actually made him less exasperating and more comprehensible. If he was my husband I'd kill him, though, not just beat him in wrestling in the back yard.

3 comments:

Booger Patrol said...

I love this book.

gwen said...

it reminded me a little of The Corrections, because of the sort of climaxing insanity of the plot

Anonymous said...

That is the one book that I read until I had only 50 pages left to go...I didn't care by the end.