Just picked up a copy of White Teeth, anybody else read this? What do you think?

Just picked up a copy of White Teeth, anybody else read this? What do you think?

My highschool teacher made us read it. I remember it being trash. Superficial exploration of "identity" with a layer of "multiculturalism" to make it acceptable to brainless liberals. She has nothing new to say whatsoever. Smith's prose is very mediocre, and I hardly remember any memorable passages. The characters are either heavy-handed allegorical devices or very superificial.

>Smith's prose is very mediocre

This. I went in with high expectations and got a writer who hops stylistically (but not in a good way) from paragraph to paragraph. The opening bit was kind of funny but that's about it.

Out of curiosity, as far as the topic of identity goes, especially cultural identity, or a sort of immigrant story, what books do you consider good explorations of that?

That depends; would you like something spicy?

Edwidge Danticat

Amy Tan if you want it with soy sauce, Lan Samantha Chang if you want it with General Tso's chicken

Under Western Eyes

>a woman writing about 'identity' and 'multi-culti' liberal shit

shocker

...

Ye, I read one of her books in high school and it had the exact same themes.

opening lines

>Early in the morning, late in the century, Cricklewood Broadway. At 0627 hours on January 1, 1975, Alfred Archibald Jones was dressed in corduroy and sat in a fume-filled Cavalier Musketeer Estate facedown on the steering wheel, hoping the judgment would not be too heavy upon him. He lay in a prostrate cross, jaw slack, arms splayed on either side like some fallen angel; scrunched up in each fist he held his army service medals (left) and his marriage license (right), for he had decided to take his mistakes with him. A little green light flashed in his eye, signaling a right turn he had resolved never to make. He was resigned to it. He was prepared for it. He had flipped a coin and stood staunchly by the results. This was a decided-upon suicide. In fact, it was a New Year’s resolution.

- "prostrate" in a car seat, not at all possible, trying to be too fancy with word choice without knowing word meanings
- "fallen angel", pretty cliche
- "for he had decided" why
- a death opening which i'm sure will be subverted in that post-ironic "it wasn't really all that bad anyway" "funny" method

particularly pompous line a little later on the next page:

>The thinnest covering of luck was on him like fresh dew. While he slipped in and out of consciousness, the position of the planets, the music of the spheres, the flap of a tiger moth’s diaphanous wings in Central Africa, and a whole bunch of other stuff that Makes Shit Happen had decided it was second-chance time for Archie. Somewhere, somehow, by somebody, it had been decided that he would live.

- typical purple prose, thinking that being a good writer means waxing poetic about cosmic bodies and bugs wtf

it's not great and it's not terrible, 6/10

>"prostrate" in a car seat, not at all possible, trying to be too fancy with word choice without knowing word meanings
It is possible and it's quite straightforward. Too much YA lit m8 it's poisoned your brain.

i disagree, how can he do this when his head is on the steering wheel

I don't believe he is doing that very specific interpretation of "prostrate" Mr Y Autismo

>very specific

this is what the word prostrate means

>to cast (oneself) face down on the ground in humility, submission, or adoration.
>to put or throw flat with the face down, as in submission or adoration
>lying with the front of your body turned toward the ground
>to lay flat, as on the ground.
>to throw down level with the ground.
>lying flat or at full length, as on the ground.
>lying face down on the ground, as in token of humility, submission, or adoration.

there's nothing that says "slumped with your head on something" or "slumped and in a half-crouch, sitting down"

if you don't know what the words you're using mean in the fuggin third sentence, you aren't very good at prose. it ain't autism to say so, sorry.

>This is Clara, who is the recipient of a secret (kept secret from Alsana and Archie) lending library of Neena’s through which 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, on Neena’s part, to rid Clara of her “false consciousness.”

>“I mean, I just think men have caused enough chaos this century. There’s enough fucking men in the world. If I knew I was going to have a boy”—she pauses to prepare her two falsely conscious friends for this new concept—“I’d have to seriously consider abortion.”

FUCKING DROPPED!

doesn't prostrate mean lying down
i've always read it as meaning fully lying down like you would when you're asleep, similar to "prone"

>typical purple prose, thinking that being a good writer means waxing poetic about cosmic bodies and bugs wtf

i think those are intentional cliches
when we think about chance and causation those things often come to mind because they're overused in our culture-- a butterfly's wings flapping in china can create a tidal wave in the atlantic! and that kind of thing. she's using the most familiar images of entities that "make shit happen" intentionally, it's supposed to be comical (i personally don't think it works that well, it sounds teenage to me)

can't you tell that you're supposed to laugh at this character, lol

>The thinnest covering of luck was on him like fresh dew. While he slipped in and out of consciousness, the position of the planets, the music of the spheres, the flap of a tiger moth’s diaphanous wings in Central Africa, and a whole bunch of other stuff that Makes Shit Happen had decided it was second-chance time for Archie. Somewhere, somehow, by somebody, it had been decided that he would live.

I see Anaximanes here, with the thin covering like dew, obviously his idea of the air turning into water when made colder. I see Anaximander and some cyclic crap projected onto the states of conscious and unconscious. I see I see Pythagoras and his followers' ideas about celestial bodies being governed by some musical principle that is similar to math. I see Aristotle and the notions of the visible.

Is the entire novel like this? Or am I just seeing thing she did not intend?

literally just some perfectly adequate pomo narrative and I'm probably going to read it now

>Face on the steering wheel
>Arms splayed out
She obviously means that he's laying face down within the confined restrictions of the vehicle and that's probably a character theme that you would pick up if you weren't mentally retarded. at least attempt to use your imagination

...

Desu I've seen fantasy stories that read better

I think she's a really fun writer if you don't care to read super dense stuff all the time and like to take a break with something lighter but not dumb. White Teeth has too many ideas I think, it's a first novel trying to be lots of things at once, but the humour is on point. Zadie can write dialogue, and nail the speech patterns to class, the multicultural and chavvy stuff is apposite, moreover she can make unlikeable tossers kind of likeable or relatable. I've read all of her books, and I've never been blown away exactly, but I'll keeping buying.

>use your imagination

the words are the words, dude. a character theme? wtf?

There's light stuff that's actually good that wasn't written for the new york best times list.

The whole >need to take a break from "heavy" reading stuff is garbage to excuse reading trash.

>use your imagination

the words are the words, dude. using an incorrect word to describe a person as a 3rd person narrator is... a character theme? man i don't know wtf i'm reading. the correct word is "slouched" not "prostrate".

What light stuff do you mean, then?

I didn't like it. It was an unsatisfying read and I wish I hadn't read it.