First off, wow! I'm pretty impressed by the writing in this novel. While there may be a few rough edges as far as plotting and characterization go, the actual writing is very well done. Wish I could write like that.
Zadie Smith's novel begins with an attempted suicide, and although the sensation wanes shortly thereafter and doesn't rise again until the very end, the story is so well told that the characters take over and the plot becomes less important in the middle of the story.
*Begin Spoiler*
The text is divided into four sections based on some of the main characters: Archie 1974, 1945; Samad 1984, 1857; Irie 1990, 1907; and Magid, Millat and Marcus 1992, 1997. The story begins with Archibald Jones sitting is his car preparing to die of carbon monoxide poisoning but being prevented by a shopkeeper who shooes him away. He meets his future wife Clara, a second generation Carribean immigrant, daughter of a Jehovah's Witness named Hortense who was born during the Jamaican earthquake of 1907.
The narrative then tells of the friendship that sprung up between Archie and Samad Miah Iqbal, during WWII when their tank broke down in a Bulgarian village. Samad talked Archie into killing a French spy, Dr. Marc-Pierre Perret, who they discovered there. The two men went home - Archie to a first marriage that failed, and Samad, to marry his wife Alsana in an arranged marriage. We learn that Archie has a daughter Irie and Samad twin sons Magid and Millat during the same year.
The children grow up in North London with Irie experimenting with how to rid herself of her curly hair and Samad sending off Magid to the old country to make him more religious (he can't afford to send both sons) in an attempt to keeping him from becoming Westernized. As they grow, Millat has a penchant for trouble, but eventually joins a radical islamic group: Keepers of the Eternal and Victorious Islamic Nation (KEVIN), though he has difficulty adhering to some of the tenets. Magid returns to London an atheist intending to pursue a law degree. The twins and Irie have meanwhile met the Chalfens - Marcus, the father, is creating a genetically programmed oncomouse, Joyce writes about botany and tries to nurture everyone around her, and their four sons, one of whom, Josh, becomes disillusioned with "Chalfenism", the family's own egocentric belief in the rightness of the rationality and forthrightness, and joins a radical animal rights group: Fighting Animal Torture and Exploitation (FATE) because he's obsessed with the group leader's wife.
Irie, in a fit of anger/angst, sleeps with Millat and then Magid in the same day. At the end of the novel, we find she is pregnant but doesn't know by whom, and of course a DNA test won't be able to tell the difference. Everyone comes together at a press conference Dec. 31, 1992, when the oncomouse is revealed; KEVIN and FATE to disrupt the proceedings, Hortense and her Witnesses to spread the word about the end of the world, and the Iqbals and Joneses to hear the announcement and be with their children. Millat intends to shoot Chalfens, but shoots Archie instead, who realizes what he is about to do and blocks the shot at the same time as both he and Samad realize that Marcus Chalfens mentor is Dr. Perrot, who Archie did not kill back in 1945.
*End Spoiler*
The text makes commentary on the nature of families, history, memory, genetic engineering and science, while pulling it all together in one final confrontation.
It's a fascinating story about the immigrant experience, the cross-generational conflict that affects immigrant families, and the desire to find a place where you belong. The anxiety of all adolescence is to find your niche, but when you are trying to define your ethnic identity at the same time, it gets even harder, something this book does a pretty good job of starting to describe. And the bits about genetic engineering and Samad's obsession with history certainly add to the overall problem of identity formation (in particular, national identity formation) that's treated in the book. I'm glad the book club read this, even though I'm also going to put it on my contemporary brit lit list as well.
I know I'll be looking forward to her next book.
UPDATE: Post book club - I have to add this comment from a book club member. "Reading White Teeth was a bit like taking vitamins. You know they're good for you". Interpret as you will.