...I cannot honestly say that I didn't like White Teeth. Did I amp it up too much and become "minutely" disappointed, yes. I started NW when the hype floated it to the top of all the charts and the storefronts of major chain bookstores. I really liked the small bits of NW and I definitely jumped on the West Indian Brit bandwagon, which I shouldn't have. I bought all of Smith's published works coincidentally on her birthday, but now I'm left wondering if I'll ever get around to finishing them all.

The only thing I can compare White Teeth to is a good American Idol Audition. It's not spectacular, it's stuck under the spotlight, it's the big debut, so it tries to out do itself even though it's already good enough from the jump to go through. White Teeth is over 500 pages of teeth pulling. For absolutely no reason does this novel have to be this long. I would have freely given this four stars if it had capped at a smooth 350 pages range. Yes, it's extremely complete, but Smith's debut work leaves nothing to the imagination. As much as I wanted to like this, because even with it's length and plethora of characters it's not a completely jumbled mess, I just can't. White Teeth reminds me of one of those stories I'm terrified I'm going to get sucked into when I visit older family members who remember too many details and never really identify the point of their rambling. There's so much going on that I feel like every ten pages Smith wants me to have a new enlightenment. It's just overwhelming really.

If you're looking for simplicity, this is not it. If you're looking for something to kill time on, pick this up. White Teeth is a good story, especially if you're a big fan of detail and extra characters, but it's definitely not one of my top picks.

★★★

Labels: 50 books in 52 weeks, white teeth, woc writers, women writers reading group, zadie smith