White Teeth

White Teeth is the kind of book you write essays about. Essays about immigration and family and the differences between the first generation and the second. Essays about religion vs science and progress vs tradition. About learning from mistakes and repeating the same old mistakes on down the generations. Essays about colonialism, xenophobia, racism, and never knowing where you belong. Essays about teeth and all their possible symbolic meaning and whether or not Irie ever became a dentist.

What I'm trying to say is that this is a very dense book with a lot going on. It's going to stick with me for a while. But I had some trouble with it. The plot jumps around a lot, and it takes a while for some of the threads to come together. It took longer than usual for me to get into this book. Not that I was uninterested, I just wasn't particularly hooked for the first few chapters. Then it ended really suddenly, and I was left wanting more. But it didn't take me too long to make peace with that, because Zadie Smith gives you just enough wrap-up to satiate while also explaining why she didn't give more.

This was ultimately a good book, and it's definitely an important book. It's just going to take me a while to unpack everything. I almost wish I'd read it in a classroom setting, with plenty of discussions and background.

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