white teeth

Author's Name: Zaidi Smith

“If religion is the opium of the masses, then tradition is a more sinister drug, because it rarely seems sinister. If religion is a tight band, a pulsating artery and a needle, then tradition is a more familial concoction: crushed poppy seeds in tea, a sweet cocoa drink laced with cocaine, the kind of thing your grandmother would make.” * “White Teeth” is the story of British Archie Jones and his deep friendship with Samad Iqbal, a Bengali Muslim, since they met as soldiers in World War II. By tracing the two friends’ families, Zadie Smith takes us deep into the formations of multiracial British society. Archie’s second marriage, to a much younger Jamaican girl, produces Airi, a bright girl with an eccentric personality. While Samad Iqbal had to marry late, he was waiting for his wife to give birth! She gives birth to twin boys, each of whom takes a different path in life: one to scholarship, the other to extremism. The author’s style has been considered reminiscent of Jane Austen, Salman Rushdie said of White Teeth in a lengthy essay about it: “[It is] a restless hybrid world of sounds, actions, and stories.”