"White Teeth" was British writer Zadie Smith's first novel. It was critically acclaimed, it won awards and it was turned into a mini-series on British television which was broadcast in America on PBS Masterpiece Theater.

There are several Zadie Smith links. Avoid the unofficial one called zadiesmith.com which has popups. It's a literary lure site.

There's a good fan/critic page by Kevin Patrick Mahoney. There are reviews, pages devoted to Smith or "White Teeth," biographical material and interviews at Culture Wars, PBS and BBC.

Some of the sites indicate that she sold the book and got a good advance on the strength of the outline and first 80 pages.

Smith writes very well. Her characters are well drawn, distinctive, complex people with interesting impulses, feelings and ideas. The characters carry the novel and tell the story. The social and political themes are presented through the stories of the characters.

The narrative voice is third person omniscient, and the point of view shifts. Generally, the point of view is minority - Asian or Caribean immigrants, women, and young people - but without any large sense of oppression. Her characters are not necessarily powerful in society, but they are powerful within one another's emotional lives.

Smith is at her best with several complex and confused young people. There are Clara and Alsana, the young women who marry Archie and Samid, who are men in their 50's, veterans of World War II. There are also Irie, the daughter of Clara and Archie, Magid and Millat, the twin sons of Alsana and Samid, Joshua Chalfens, and a handful of other young people. The young people are pulled in different directions. They are drawn to assimilate into British culture, and the British intelligentsia. They want to be normal. They imagine themselves within the framework of movies and pop culture. They embrace and reject parental and family influences. They face the direct prejudices of outright racists, and the oblivious racism of the average Englishman. They also encounter the subtle and condescending racism of political correctness and liberalism. Some are drawn to isolationist religious and racist movements or radical activism.

She puts her characters into a very interesting story that goes from the older men capturing a Nazi scientist at the end of World War II to several sets of characters involved, at the end of the 20th century with promoting or protesting a scientist who has created a genetically modified mouse. Her treatment of science and culture is progressive and post-modern.