Spanning several decades in multicultural North London, White Teeth follows the tangled lives of two wartime friends—the hapless Englishman Archie Jones and the Bengali Muslim Samad Iqbal—along with their wives and children. As the families collide with the eccentric, intellectual Chalfens, the novel traces questions of immigration, identity, faith, and inheritance across generations. Zadie Smith's debut is a sprawling comic portrait of race, history, and belonging in late-twentieth-century Britain.
Books mentioned in White Teeth (17)
Fear of Flying by Erica Jong: “This is Clara... through which she reads, in a few short months, Greer's Female Eunuch, Jong's Fear of Flying, and The Second Sex.”
The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer: “she reads, in a few short months, Greer's Female Eunuch, Jong's Fear of Flying, and The Second Sex, all in a clandestine attempt to rid Clara of her 'false consciousness.'”
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir: “she reads, in a few short months, Greer's Female Eunuch, Jong's Fear of Flying, and The Second Sex.”
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger: “impossibly rare copy of Slick Rick's 'Hey Young World,' The Catcher in the Rye, his guitar... all had been placed on the funeral pyre.”
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess: “Pair of black Converse baseball shoes A Clockwork Orange (book) Alsana Sewing machine Three pots of Tiger Balm... (list of items burned).”
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson: “more recently she had read and watched Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, but none of it did her any good.”
The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall: “During the seventies she dutifully read The Well of Loneliness and Our Bodies, Ourselves (which had a small chapter).”
Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women's Health Book Collective: “During the seventies she dutifully read The Well of Loneliness and Our Bodies, Ourselves (which had a small chapter).”
The Third Life of Grange Copeland by Alice Walker: “a battered Women's Press copy of The Third Life of Grange Copeland by Alice Walker.”
A Passage to India by E. M. Forster: “swore that if anyone ever adapted A Passage to India for the stage he could have whichever role tickled his fancy.”
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X: “'How many times,' Samad growled, after watching his son purchase The Autobiography of Malcolm X, 'is it necessary to say thank you in a single transaction?'”
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov: Epigraph to Chapter Eleven: '—Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita.'
Linda Goodman's Star Signs by Linda Goodman: “Leg of lamb (frozen) Foot bath Linda Goodman's Starsigns (book)... (list of items).”
Studies in the Scriptures (Millennial Dawn) by Charles Taze Russell: “Russell's Millennial Dawn, as it was read to Ambrosia night after night, passed as if by osmosis into Hortense's soul.”
In Sugar-Cane Land by Eden Phillpotts: “In Sugar Cane Land, by Eden Phillpotts.”