Happy Fourth

I wasn't feeling very well on the fourth so I staid in bed and read White Teeth by Zadie Smith, start to finish. I loved it.

The story follows three families, The Jones: Archie, Clara and their daughter Irie; The Iqbals: Samad, Aslana and their twin sons Millat and Magid; and the Chalfeans. Archie and Samad fight together in WWII in the "buggered battalion" a unit for army misfits. They return to England and both eventually marry, Archie meeting Clara, a beautiful six foot Jamaican immigrant with a passionate Jehova's Witness mother, and Samad entering an arranged marriage with Alsana. Both women are about 25 years younger than their husbands. Within the year Clara gives birth to a daughter, Irie and Alsana has twin boys Millat and Magid. Both families struggle to make their way in lower end London. After his own moral failings, Samad becomes so concerned for his sons that he sends Magid back to India. Millat remains and becomes a womanizing gangster recruited by Islamic extremists. Irie also struggles to find her place. They both become intertwined with the middle class, intellectual Catholic-Jewish Chalfens, through their nerdy son Josh. His mother, Joyce Chalfen misguidedly attempts to "heal" Millat while Marcus Chalfen employs Irie as a secretary for his research work creating, "Futuremouse", an animal whose genetic makeup is supposed to precisely determine the animals whole life.

It can be a bit brutal and complex at times but the characters are so familiar, so human, and the story is told so naturally and with such wry wit that the book remains enjoyably fascinating in even its darkest moments.