White Teeth: A Novel (original 2000; udgave 2001)

I have heard nothing but praise for this book and was excited to read it. It didn't draw me in as expected. I found it hard to really care about any of the characters, and my reading went very sloooowly. ( )

A great story, well written and very readable, that creates an atmosphere you can almost touch. There is a marvellous array of characters, but it is the author’s treatment of almost all of them that makes this book, for me, 4 rather than 5 stars. She treats all but one with a huge dose of contempt and a lot of sarcasm. They are caricatures; type-casts with few redeeming features. Still, 4 stars for me is still enjoyable and I”m glad I read it. ( )

There is just so much to unpack in this novel. Smith really gives readers a lot to think about. The ending is one that I simultaneous like and dislike, but maybe as I think on the book more I'll have a more decisive feeling about it later.

One thing I found interesting about many of the characters is that while they seemed very plausible and realistic, they sometimes came very close to toeing the line between realistic and becoming caricatures - though Smith never crossed this line in her writing and I feel that having her characters come off this way was very deliberate.

There were just so many lines in this book that really made me stop to think and/or were just beautiful prose. Remembering that this is her debut novels makes me very excited to read more of her books in the future.

Content Warnings: racism, mentioning animal experimentation, fatphobia ( )

This book is a mix of races, religions and ages. It follows two families. The men were in a war together. They marry and have kids. The kids then grow up with their issues. You get everyone's thoughts on things as time passes. It honestly took me a good while to get into the story. I did end up liking it. I'm not sure if there was an overall message, but most everyone in the book was a somewhat new perspective from many of the books that I've read. ( )

i am futuremouse ( )