The intertwining of 3 English families at the close of the last millenium is the subject of this novel that is both thoughtful and light-hearted. The lives of Jamaican and Bangladeshi immigrants are recorded along with the inevitable conflicts between these immigrants and their offspring who grow up in England. A real tour de force.

A smart, hilarious, and surprisingly knowing novel for such a young author (who belongs to my own generation), White Teeth is one of my favorite books. Beginning with the absurd failed suicide of a haplessly indecisive middle-aged Englishman named Archie, who reminds me a little of Arthur Dent from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, then moving on to his friend Samad, a hilariously self-important, argumentative Bengali (whose "slapping your salami" discussion had me snorting with laughter and trying not to drive off the road), the story eventually comes to encompass the key members of three colorfully fractious families, across several generations.

This book is similar to Joseph Heller's Catch-22 in that it uses exaggerated characters and absurd situations to make its point. But, in my opinion, Smith writes with a keen eye for satire and an effortless authority that suggests much personal experience with born-again Jamaican grandmothers, irascible Indian housewives, white hippie-scientists with overly progressive parenting styles, and other figures that populate multicultural, urban Britain. Some readers might fault her for being a little too cynical with her characters, who are put into caricature boxes that they never quite manage to escape, or a little too self-indulgent (which I thought was true in spots) but, overall, I enjoyed her wit and felt that it was rooted in compassion, offering surprisingly mature insights into culture clashes, growing up, growing older, and the mental contortions people put themselves through in order to put on a front for the world or themselves, despite what they actually feel inside.

White Teeth isn't a very plot-driven book, taking snapshots of its central figures and their lives through multiple decades, but it's this epic sweep, I think, that really gives Smith's novel resonance. From beneath the comic posturing and postulations of her characters emerges a true sense of the vital undercurrents of history, as seen by a member of the generation about to inherit it. Few writers in their 30s show such talent, let alone those among Smith's 20-something peers (back when she wrote the book, that is). Vibrant, funny, and moving -- highly recommended.

The audiobook rendering was excellent, and might even make the listening experience preferable to reading the print version. The narrator did a great job with all the accents.

I wanted to like this book. Between the reviews on here and on Amazon, I thought I was going to like it. The narrator had a really annoying accent, but that aside, I could not get into the story. The characters are shallow and not well developed enough to make you care about the story. When the author does spend time developing characters, it seems like a misguided focus on mundane aspects of their lives. I even tried fast forwarding through a large part of the middle of the story, hoping it would get better later, but that did not happen. I could not spend over 23 hours of my life on this book. 9 hours were enough to make me want my credits back!

I liked the comedic parts of this book,but felt that it could have been a little better plot-wise.The sudden political parts confused me,when the narrator went from a paragraph about the family and then to something about a war and somewbody being a captain....if it wasn't for that,I'dve given it another star.

A good read, a fantastic reader, but all the absurd coincidences and implausible plot turns ruined it for me in the end.

Although the author's talent is evident and there were some good spots in the story I got to a point where I just could listen no longer. I kept asking myself, where is this going. Answer, nowhere.

After reading On Beauty, which was FABULOUS, I could hardly wait to read White Teeth, Zadie Smith's first book. What a disappointment! I found it very difficult to follow the transitions between characters and didn't find any of the characters interesting enough to make me want to follow them. There was very little light or redemption in site and the characters were not only bleek and seedy but boring as well. In the end, I gave up about 2/3 of the way through, telling myself "this is just more than I wanted to know about turtles".

I do not know how she does it, but Zadie Smith captures you and you are there. You know these people.

Thank you Ms. Smith

Suzanne

Yes but not the audio book. I find the narrator extremely distracting and a bit over dramatic. In fact, I don't like to listen to this book at all because the narration is confusing and overly done, for my taste.

Yes, I would try both a book by Zadie Smith and I also would try another book performed by Jenny Sterlin. I thought the characters were well written and Ms. Sterline gave a different voice to the characters bringing them to life.

Yes