White Teeth by Zadie Smith

White Teeth is a wise and funny book about unassimilated immigrants in London, about genetic engineering, about human destiny. The wildly humorous set of mismatched characters and the plot based on improbable coincidences both make you expect satire and humor to dominate. But everything about these characters and what they do fits together beautifully to illuminate the human condition.

At the simplest level the satire revolves around what does it mean to be "English."

In the older generation, Archie Jones (a working class Englishman who marries a black immigrant from Jamaica) and Samad Iqbal (a Moslem from Bengladesh) serve in the same tank in the English army in Romania in World War II and become unlikely life-long friends.

The twin sons of Samad (Magid and Millat) and the daughter of Archie (Irie) are all born in England, but are presumed to be foreigners because of their skin color.

Magid, who is sent back to Bengladesh to grow up with the culture of his parents' native land, winds up more English than the English. His twin brother Millat, who stays in England, gets caught up in an ultra-Moslem activist group (with the acronym "KEVIN").

In contrast, the Chalfen family, wealthy, liberal and very English, are third generation immigrants by way of Germany and Poland. They have been assimilated.

But the author takes the tale to another level, drawing parallels between the cross-pollination of plants and the random mixing of human genes and cultures. In both cases, diversity leads to health and strength. But while much has changed in London in recent years, prejudice is still painfully evident:

"This has been the century of strangers, brown, yellow, and white. This has been the century of the great immigrant experiment. It is only this late in the day that you can walk into a playground and find Isaac Leung by the fish pond, Danny Rahman in the football cage, Quang O'Rourke bouncing a basketball, and Irie Jones humming a tune. Children with first and last names on a direct collision course. Names that secrete within them mass exodus, cramped boats and planes, cold arrivals, medical checkups. It is only this late in the day, and possibly only in Willesden, that you can find best friends Sita and Sharon, constantly mistaken for each other because Sita is white (her mother liked the name) and Sharon is Pakistani (her mother thought it best -- less trouble). Yet, despite all the mixing up, despite the fact that we have finally slipped into each other's lives with reasonable comfort (like a man returning to his lover's bed after a midnight walk), despite all this, it is still hard to admit that there is no one more English than the Indian, no one more Indian than the English. There are still young white men who are angry about that; who will roll out at closing time into the poorly lit streets with a kitchen knife wrapped in a tight fist." (pp. 271-272)

And the lot of the immigrant is not easy:

"These days it feels to me like you make a devil's pact when you walk into this country. You hand over your passport at the check-in, you get stamped, you want to make a little money, get yourself started... but you mean to go back! Who would want to stay? Cold, wet, miserable; terrible food, dreadful newspapers -- who would want to stay? In a place where you are never welcomed, only tolerated. Just tolerated. Like you are an animal finally housebroken. Who would want to stay? But you have made a devil's pact... it drags you in and suddenly you are unsuitable to return, your children are unrecognizable, you belong nowhere." p. 336 

And assimilation, even if it were desirable, is basically impossible, at least for the first and second generation:

"Because this is the other thing about immigrants (fugees, emigres, travelers): they cannot escape their history any more than you yourself can lose your shadow." p. 385

Through the character of Marcus Chalfen, the author introduces the theme of genetic engineering. Marcus seeks to improve, to "perfect" mankind, artificially. His promising experiments with mice have led to his prototype "FutureMouse", a life form that he seeks to patent.

So from the plight of unassimilated immigrants in London, the theme expands to deal with the fate of mankind. Here random genetic variation is goodness, essential for survival. And genetic engineering, justified in the interests of "perfection" is a serious and imminent danger. Present-day scientific advances are the heritage of fascist dreams and experiments from World War II, and are, in part motivated by the desire to control and dominate, "You eliminate the random, you rule the world." (p. 283)

And along the way, the author scatters memorable little bits of wisdom, any one of which would make the reading of this novel well worth the investment of time. (How can she be just 24? And this her first novel?)

"I can't see the difference, frankly," said Archie. "When you're dead, you're dead."

"Oh no, Archibald, no," whispered Samad, melancholic. "You don't believe that. You must live life with the full knowledge that your actions will remain. We are creatures of consequence, Archibald... Our children will be born of our actions. Our accidents will become their destinies. Oh, the actions will remain. It is a simple matter of what you will do when the chips are down, my friend... In that moment our actions will define us. And it makes no difference whether you are being watched by Allah, Jesus, Buddah or whether you are not." (pp. 86-87)

Other book reviews by Richard Seltzer

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