By Zadie Smith Random House. What she has to say in her brilliant and troubling debut novel, White Teeth, is said from the vantage point of both the colonized and the colonizer. But her purpose here, clearly, is not to afflict the comfortable or comfort the afflicted. Though interestingly drawn, the brown people inhabiting Smith's England are chiefly involved in assimilating and disappearing into the pink-faced Britannic masses.
Assimilation is a goal here, seemingly.
Black Brits can and do melt into the pot. Samad felt particularly lucid. Like his tongue was buttered and like the world was a polished egg. Like a postmodern Charles Dickens, she has a flair for facial features, dress, dialogue, accents and human frailty. Her rich storytelling and wicked wit are suited to the sights and smells of the world that England has inherited.