Australian Women's Book Review: Online

Hecate's
Australian Women's Book Review

ISSN 1033-9434
Editor:  Barbara Brook
Contributing Assistant Editor:  Katie Hughes
Photomontage:  Set in Stone, Adele Flood

Volume 12, 2000

Picturing the Author

White Teeth by Zadie Smith, Hamish Hamilton.Paperback, 2000, $24.95, 462 pp.

Reviewed by Carolyn Woodley

There is no doubt that Zadie Smith is a talented writer. Having worked the Melbourne Writers' Festival 2000, she could see her first novel, White Teeth, at number 3 on the Melbourne Age's bestseller list (21/10/00). It is an amusing tale of quirky, well-realised characters who come together in a text about contemporary postcolonial Britain. Smith's London sees classes, ethnicities, religions and sexualities mixing and merging in a metropolis where, in one road, “you can get fourteen types of dal”.

Smith's astute observations of “multicultural” Britain are often understated and guaranteed to amuse or offend: a Hindu boy is placed with a Muslim butcher “on misguided work experience”, while a Muslim youth struggling with a new Islamic identity imagines God as “some cross between Monkey-Magic and Bruce Willis”. Predictably, Smith has been likened to Rushdie (whose recommendation is centrally positioned on the cover) with her playful, comic treatment of language and her focus on a post-racial Britain in which racism is only ever ignorant or ugly. There are echoes, too, of early, comic Naipaul, and of Forster. Smith's accents rarely go beyond a clever brand of stereotyping and, like Thomas Hardy, her plot is a little too coincidental. But this is an important novel and good fun. Smith's gift for a vivid and true metaphor often surprises and sometimes enlightens.

As well as Rushdie, Smith has been compared with Arundhati Roy. It has been the youth and gender of both writers that is often remarked upon … followed quickly by how much they have earned. Zadie Smith is “that once badly behaved teenager (who) is now 24” and who has “a reported $625,000 for a two-novel contract”. Much of the fuss surrounding White Teeth centres on the youth of the 23-year-old author. The combination of youth and gender disarm critics: “How”, asks one reviewer, can “a young woman … so successfully capture the voices of middle-aged men?” - As if middle-aged male voices aren't the dominant voices of most culture, most of the time!

And for both women, publicity shots are particularly glamorous. Sam Wallace spends a paragraph of his “book review” on Smith's appearance:

Tall with high cheekbones and long curly hair, ideal for a moody black and white book sleeve portrait, with a combination of inner city street-credibility and a deeply traditional arts education, Zadie Smith is the perfect package for a literary marketing exercise [with her] funky black square glasses, furry trapper's hats and chunky trainers.

Look no further than the following urls to see said glasses and cheekbones:

http://www.hampsteadschool.org.uk/hbuzz/hbuzz6.htm

http://www.theage.com.au/daily/000305/books/books12.html

http://www.randomhouse.com/atradom/firstfiction/zsmith.html

When was the last time Rushdie's glasses rated a mention in a book review? And who can tell what sort of shoes he favours? Smith is also featured in a piece called “Young, Gifted and Black”. This article ranges over the work of some 12 actors, writers and musicians: but only Smith's age is mentioned.

Is this all sour grapes on my part? Maybe … even if I could look as nonchalantly gorgeous as Arundhati or Zadie in a publicity pic, I'm hurtling towards 40 without so much as a dust-jacket to pout on …

Of course there are some reviews that focus on White Teeth, the book, and as Melissa Denes in the Daily Telegraph writes: “It would not matter if she were a he, white and the wrong side of 40: Smith can write”. But then, the pictures would have certainly been less plentiful.

Carolyn Woodley teaches Professional Writing at Victoria University.

Hecate's Australian Women's Book Review

ISSN 1033-9434		Editor: Barbara Brook Contributing Assistant Editor: Katie Hughes *Photomontage: Set in Stone, Adele Flood*
Volume 12, 2000

Picturing the Author White Teeth by Zadie Smith, Hamish Hamilton.Paperback, 2000, $24.95, 462 pp. Reviewed by Carolyn Woodley There is no doubt that Zadie Smith is a talented writer. Having worked the Melbourne Writers' Festival 2000, she could see her first novel, White Teeth, at number 3 on the Melbourne Age's bestseller list (21/10/00). It is an amusing tale of quirky, well-realised characters who come together in a text about contemporary postcolonial Britain. Smith's London sees classes, ethnicities, religions and sexualities mixing and merging in a metropolis where, in one road, “you can get fourteen types of dal”. Smith's astute observations of “multicultural” Britain are often understated and guaranteed to amuse or offend: a Hindu boy is placed with a Muslim butcher “on misguided work experience”, while a Muslim youth struggling with a new Islamic identity imagines God as “some cross between Monkey-Magic and Bruce Willis”. Predictably, Smith has been likened to Rushdie (whose recommendation is centrally positioned on the cover) with her playful, comic treatment of language and her focus on a post-racial Britain in which racism is only ever ignorant or ugly. There are echoes, too, of early, comic Naipaul, and of Forster. Smith's accents rarely go beyond a clever brand of stereotyping and, like Thomas Hardy, her plot is a little too coincidental. But this is an important novel and good fun. Smith's gift for a vivid and true metaphor often surprises and sometimes enlightens. As well as Rushdie, Smith has been compared with Arundhati Roy. It has been the youth and gender of both writers that is often remarked upon … followed quickly by how much they have earned. Zadie Smith is “that once badly behaved teenager (who) is now 24” and who has “a reported $625,000 for a two-novel contract”. Much of the fuss surrounding White Teeth centres on the youth of the 23-year-old author. The combination of youth and gender disarm critics: “How”, asks one reviewer, can “a young woman … so successfully capture the voices of middle-aged men?” - As if middle-aged male voices aren't the dominant voices of most culture, most of the time! And for both women, publicity shots are particularly glamorous. Sam Wallace spends a paragraph of his “book review” on Smith's appearance: Tall with high cheekbones and long curly hair, ideal for a moody black and white book sleeve portrait, with a combination of inner city street-credibility and a deeply traditional arts education, Zadie Smith is the perfect package for a literary marketing exercise [with her] funky black square glasses, furry trapper's hats and chunky trainers. Look no further than the following urls to see said glasses and cheekbones: http://www.hampsteadschool.org.uk/hbuzz/hbuzz6.htm http://www.theage.com.au/daily/000305/books/books12.html http://www.randomhouse.com/atradom/firstfiction/zsmith.html When was the last time Rushdie's glasses rated a mention in a book review? And who can tell what sort of shoes he favours? Smith is also featured in a piece called “Young, Gifted and Black”. This article ranges over the work of some 12 actors, writers and musicians: but only Smith's age is mentioned. Is this all sour grapes on my part? Maybe … even if I could look as nonchalantly gorgeous as Arundhati or Zadie in a publicity pic, I'm hurtling towards 40 without so much as a dust-jacket to pout on … Of course there are some reviews that focus on White Teeth, the book, and as Melissa Denes in the Daily Telegraph writes: “It would not matter if she were a he, white and the wrong side of 40: Smith can write”. But then, the pictures would have certainly been less plentiful. Carolyn Woodley teaches Professional Writing at Victoria University.