Published in 2000, White Teeth is one of the most recent novels on the Time list.
And I’ve got to tell you guys that, after reading the first two chapters, I’m kind of in love with this novel. It’s entertaining, engaging, and seriously funny.
I’ll get more into the story in the coming weeks. In the meantime, here’s a few notes about White Teeth and its author, Zadie Smith:
- According to Wikipedia, the story focuses on the later lives of two wartime friends—the Bangladeshi Samad Iqbal and the Englishman Archie Jones—and their families in London.
- The novel won many awards, including the 2000 James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Whitbread Book Award, the Guardian First Book Award, and the Commonwealth Writers First Book Award.
- Yes, fellow writers, this was Zadie Smith’s first novel and it was hugely successful.
- A four-part mini-series based on the novel was broadcast on Channel 4, British public television, in 2002.
- To date, Zadie Smith has written four novels, all of which have received a good bit of critical praise.
- She’s 39 and writes out of New York and London.
This novel is unusual for the Time list because not only is the author still alive, but she’s only 39. 39! That’s my age. What am I doing with my life?
So who’s read White Teeth? And were you as impressed with it as much as I am with the first two chapters?
