White Teeth
by Zadie Smith

Alan Miller

With her debut novel, Zadie Smith has become the next big thing of the publishing world.

Since publishers crave the sassy and sexy equivalents of music and fashion, and yet continue to need people who can string more than a sentence or two together, it seems as though she fits the bill entirely. While the hype was revving up, I picked up a QPD 'exclusive chapter sampler' of White Teeth and must confess that it had me hooked. It introduces us to Archie Jones and his peculiar second marriage to Clara (Jamaican and half his age), who fails in a suicide attempt.

Whenever there is as much of a buzz around something as there is around White Teeth, I am always slightly reticent. It has to be said, though, that this first novel is a witty and perceptive debut with some brilliantly observed characters and some very funny colloquialisms and idiosyncrasies. For instance, when Irie (the brilliantly named daughter of Archie and Clara) is arguing with Millat (twin brother of Magid, son to Samad and Alsana Iqbal), we get the following:

'Who said you were eating it?'
'I don't want to.'
'Well, you're not going to.'
'Well, good, 'cos I don't want to.'
'Well, good, 'cos I wouldn't let you even if you wanted to.'
'Well that's lucky cos I don't. So shame.' (P142)

These delightful parries are developed wonderfully. There are moments when Smith's pace approaches that of Ben Elton at his best, such as the moment when Samad meets the 'loquacious lips' of Poppy Burt-Jones, the oh-so-trendy school teacher at his son's school. Here too, Smith exposes the ironies of the politically correct do-gooders of the world, whilst managing to retain the dramatic interest.

To be frank, Smith has run riot. A very bright woman who (as we all must know by now) got an advance after only 80 pages, with accolades from Salman Rushdie amongst others, she has given us a stream of consciousness reflecting her own experiences growing up, with some clever pointers and twists thrown in. Perhaps understandably, she is at her best when on the surface of her characters - the patois and swagger of Millat and his posse, the Chalfont style of living, Archie and Samad down at Micky's gaff... It is only really Archibald and Samad whose deeper insights are revealed, and this is where perhaps Smith could have developed the other characters further.

In general though, this is a 'top shout,' appropriating the street vernacular and paying the price of momentary lapses of style. The play on contemporary ideas indicates a fertile imagination and sense of humour. There is more substance in White Teeth than can be found in the banal irony of postmodern relativists and far, far more passion. Because ultimately, it seems that Zadie Smith really cares about who she writes about.

Smith brings us into her world - a world shaped by the past, by colonialism and immigration, by mixed marriages, by inner city life at the turn of the century. Admittedly, she errs towards some of today's more popular notions when she decryies tampering with genes (Marcus Chalfont and a ubiquitous mouse), but at the same, time she presents with continual intelligent humour and a lively pace.

Roll on book two.