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• 3 people find this helpful

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  • Reading "white teeth" and "the opposite house" at the same time was a great idea. Both are set in London, England and both feature the lives of immigrant families trying to find meaning, cultural and personal identity, and happiness in a foreign city. However, they are very different stories. "Wh ... Continue

    Reading "white teeth" and "the opposite house" at the same time was a great idea. Both are set in London, England and both feature the lives of immigrant families trying to find meaning, cultural and personal identity, and happiness in a foreign city. However, they are very different stories. "White teeth" is more of a funny, irreverent, "William Kotzwinkle-esk" family saga, starting in 1974 and going to 1999. "The opposite house" has more magic realism/spirit world references, is very serious, and somewhat more challenging, and yet equally enjoyable. I highly recommend both.

    

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• ― Leah said on Sep 10, 2008 about the Hardcover edition| Add your feedback

• 3 people find this helpful

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  • Spassoso, divertente, ricco d'inventiva e dannatamente serio nell'affrontaer i problemi della multiculturalità, della differenza e dell'identità. Da leggere in originale, perché la lingua della Smith è superba.

    

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• ― Drownsoda2 said on Mar 4, 2008 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

• 2 people find this helpful

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  • If you want to read a book about how ethnic minorities live in the UK these days, this is just the book you´ve been looking for! It´s a masterpiece.

    

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• ― gabriel2009 (gabriel2009) said on Feb 1, 2009 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • Liked the structure of the book. Just when the plot and cast was in danger of becoming claustrophobic, an additional set entered which re-energised the book.

    I never saw the final twist coming, but then I never do.

    

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• ― Mearso said on Nov 4, 2009 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • Letto in lingua lungo alcune tratte del viaggio in interrail quindi temo che l'ambientazione mi abbia un po'influenzato, ma ho adorato questo libro.
    Tre famiglie completamente diverse per ceto, nazionalità, usanze e rapporti interfamiliari. Ci si aspetterebbe un'incompatibilità di fondo, invece ... Continue

    Letto in lingua lungo alcune tratte del viaggio in interrail quindi temo che l'ambientazione mi abbia un po'influenzato, ma ho adorato questo libro.
    Tre famiglie completamente diverse per ceto, nazionalità, usanze e rapporti interfamiliari. Ci si aspetterebbe un'incompatibilità di fondo, invece in questo romanzo meraviglioso i rapporti tra le persone non fanno che intrecciarsi nella maniera più semplice che si possa pensare.
    Una piacevole finestra che dà direttamente nelle case dei protagonisti, e che svela innocentemente i diversi modi di vivere il rapporto con gli altri.
    Una lettura paicevole, interessante e sicuramente da consigliare.

    

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• ― Renisenb23 said on Sep 4, 2009 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • Zadie Smith at her best. Nice book, well written with a good plot. Long shot, but worthy ride. You won't regret the time spent on this book about "hidden" London and Londoners.

    

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• ― Paolo Lucchesi said on Sep 4, 2009 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

On New Year's morning, 1975, Archie Jones sits in his car on a London road and waits for the exhaust fumes to fill his Cavalier Musketeer station wagon. Archie--working-class, ordinary, a failed marriage under his belt--is calling it quits, the deciding factor being the flip of a 20-pence coin. When the owner of a nearby halal butcher shop (annoyed that Archie's car is blocking his delivery area) comes out and bangs on the window, he gives Archie another chance at life and sets in motion this richly imagined, uproariously funny novel.

Epic and intimate, hilarious and poignant, White Teeth is the story of two North London families--one headed by Archie, the other by Archie's best friend, a Muslim Bengali named Samad Iqbal. Pals since they served together in World War II, Archie and Samad are a decidedly unlikely pair. Plodding Archie is typical in every way until he marries Clara, a beautiful, toothless Jamaican woman half his age, and the couple have a daughter named Irie (the Jamaican word for "no problem"). Samad--devoutly Muslim, hopelessly "foreign"--weds the feisty and always suspicious Alsana in a prearranged union. They have twin sons named Millat and Magid, one a pot-smoking punk-cum-militant Muslim and the other an insufferable science nerd. The riotous and tortured histories of the Joneses and the Iqbals are fundamentally intertwined, capturing an empire's worth of cultural identity, history, and hope.

Zadie Smith's dazzling first novel plays out its bounding, vibrant course in a Jamaican hair salon in North London, an Indian restaurant in Leicester Square, an Irish poolroom turned immigrant café, a liberal public school, a sleek science institute. A winning debut in every respect, White Teeth marks the arrival of a wondrously talented writer who takes on the big themes--faith, race, gender, history, and culture--and triumphs.

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In lingua originale (361)

Il bilinguismo per leggere, biblioteca per metà inglese per metà italiana (359)

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