WHITE TEETH by Zadie Smith

ISBN: 978-0140276336 (UK)

"'Keepers of the Eternal an Victorious Islamic Nation,' repeated Millat, impressed. 'That's a wicked name. It's got a wicked kung-fu kick-arse sound to it.'

Irie frowned. 'KEVIN?'

'We are aware,' said Hifan solemnly, pointing to the spot underneath the cupped flame where the initials were minutely embroidered, 'that we have an acronym problem' (page 295).

White Teeth, Zadie Smith's debut novel, is the last of her three published books that I've read. Of the other two, I picked up The Autograph Man in 2007 (my eco-criticism professor knew Zadie Smith at Harvard, and I was curious), and I read On Beauty last year when I stumbled upon the large print version of it at the little library at the foot of the road (the library is mainly patronized by elderly women, so most of the fiction is large print). 

Having now completed the Zadie Smith triumvirate, I feel I can sum up her work in one word: multiculturalism. But to add a few more words: multiracial, multinational, multifaith, and multigenerational families. Interracial couples with biracial children, either British or American. And another word: London. Having grown up in London, Smith writes the city with such intimate knowledge, such detail and love that you end up feeling like you grew up there too. And just one more word: humor. Lots of it.

White Teeth is the story of Archibald Jones, ordinary, bland, and predictable Englishman; and Samad Iqbal, a Bengali soldier who served with Archie in World War II. Samad and Archie are each other's best and only friends, both living in London, both working in dead-end jobs, both with wives over twenty years younger than them, and both with children they don't understand. Archie's wife is Clara, a Jamaican immigrant and recovering Jehovah's Witness. Samad's wife Alsana is a fiery and opinionated Bengali, chosen for him by an agreement between their families. Archie and Clara have a daughter, Irie, an awkward, intelligent girl who often acts as the voice of reason for the other characters in the book. Samad and Alsana have identical twin boys, Magid who wears neat button-down shirts, and Millat, who is a born hell-raiser. 

When the white middle class family of one of their classmates decides to mentor Irie and the two Iqbal boys, the three families are thrown into chaos as race, class, religion, science and morals collide, with far-reaching and unpredictable consequences. 

I have to say that, while it took me a while to get into this novel, in the end I really enjoyed it. The book spans three to four different generations of the different families, and there is a lot of backstory to cover. Some of the sections, such as those describing Archie's and Samad's experiences during the war, I found a bit tedious. Others, especially those told from Irie's point of view, I liked much more. I did like the way that all of the threads of plot come together in the end, including things from earlier in the book that I had forgotten about. The foreshadowing is subtle and really well done. There are also a lot of themes tying the different strands of the story together; among them: fate and chance, fundamentalism, and nature versus nurture. And then there is the motif of teeth: Clara's are knocked out, Irie's are uneven, and the Iqbal twins' are perfect. And always in the background there is that Western ideal of beauty and success: straight, gleaming white teeth.

Although Zadie Smith writes in a style that most creative writing instructors would discourage (extra words everywhere, informal tone, elegant variation), it seems to work for her, and it gives her novels a truly original feel. 

So, if you want something different from most mainstream novels, or you like character-based, multicultural stories and/or sprawling family yarns, you might want to give this book a try.

THE 19TH WIFE by David Ebershoff

ISBN: 9780552774987 (UK)

"It's funny, they call us the lost boys when we get kicked out, but really, we were lost the day we were born."

Another of the books I got for Christmas, David Ebershoff's The 19th Wife is the story of lost boy Jordan Scott, who at 14 is kicked out of the polygamous Mormon sect in which he was raised; left along a desert highway with only a few dollars and a knapsack containing his sacred underwear. Six years later Jordan is eking out a living in California when his father's murder draws him back to the remote desert town where he spent his childhood. Accused of the crime, imprisoned, and possibly facing execution is Jordan's mother -- his father's 19th wife. 

Intertwined with Jordan's narrative is that of Ann Eliza Young, an actual historical figure who was the 19th wife of the Mormon church's second prophet, Brigham Young. Set over a hundred years before Jordan's story, Ann Eliza's story is (somewhat confusingly) a fictionalized version of a book she actually wrote, Wife No. 19, which was published in 1876. The book deals largely with her rejection of plural marriage, and her campaign against it after her divorce from Brigham in 1875.

While Ann Eliza's story, called "The 19th Wife" in Ebershoff's novel, gives a lot of historical information about polygamy and the Mormon religion, which is interesting, I felt that at times the book was too heavily historical, and to me this took away from the more interesting plot line of the murder mystery. There seemed to be several chapters of Ann Eliza's life story for every one or two chapters of Jordan's narrative, which broke the tension of the latter plot line. It felt like Jordan's story wasn't quite enough to make up a full novel on its own, so the historical stuff was padding to prop it up.

There are also many short documents scattered throughout the book: excerpts from fictional websites, instant messages, online discussion forums, church archive records, letters, and Wikipedia entries. These are brief and I think they add to the story in a realistic way, creating layers in the mystery of Jordan's father's murder. However, there is one chapter in particular that is meant to be a graduate-level research paper, written by a minor character who is studying at the Women's Research Institute at Brigham Young University. The paper, far from being graduate level, is a straightforward summary without a thesis statement or adequate citations. It's also written in a horribly informal tone, which would never be acceptable for an academic paper. I found this break in realism very distracting, and it took away from my enjoyment of the novel. I think it's a cool idea to include different sources and points of view in a historical novel, but I don't think the author executed it well in this instance.

That being said, the book was otherwise very well written, well researched, and provocative. I could sympathize with all of the main characters, especially Jordan and Johnny, a lost boy he meets on the road and tries to help. And it was interesting to look into the world of the polygamous enclave of Mesadale (based on the actual town of Hildale, Utah) the "Firsts" (a fictional name that refers to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), and their doctrine of celestial marriage. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the history of the Mormon church and/or polygamy.