White Teeth
A Novel
New York : Vintage International, 2001.
Format: Book
Edition: First Vintage International edition.
Description: 448 pages ; 21 cm
On New Year's morning, 1975, Archie Jones sits in his car on a London road and waits for the exhaust fumes to fill his Cavalier Musketeer station wagon. Archie--working-class, ordinary, a failed marriage under his belt--is calling it quits, the deciding factor being the flip of a 20-pence coin. When the owner of a nearby halal butcher shop (annoyed that Archie's car is blocking his delivery area) comes out and bangs on the window, he gives Archie another chance at life and sets in motion this richly imagined, uproariously funny novel. Set in post-war London, this novel of the racial, political, and social upheaval of the last half-century follows two families--the Joneses and the Iqbals, both outsiders from within the former British empire--as they make their way in modern England.
Contents:
Acknowledgments -- Archie 1974, 1945: The peculiar second marriage of Archie Jones ; Teething trouble ; Two families ; Three coming ; The root canals of Alfred Archibald Jones and Samad Miah Iqbal -- Samad 1984, 1857: The temptation of Samad Iqbal ; Molars ; Mitosis ; Mutiny! ; The root canals of Mangal Pande -- Irie 1990, 1907: The miseducation of Irie Jones ; Canines : the ripping teeth ; The root canals of Hortense Bowden ; More English than the English ; Chalfenism versus Bowdenism -- Magid, Millat, And Marcus 1992, 1999: The return of Magid Mahfooz Murshed Mubtasim Iqbal ; Crisis talks and eleventh-hour tactics ; The end of history versus the last man ; Final space ; Of mice and memory.
Subjects:
Assimilation (Sociology) -- Fiction.
Interracial marriage -- Fiction.
Genetic engineering -- Fiction.
Fate and fatalism -- Fiction.
Ethnic relations -- Fiction.
Male friendship -- Fiction.
Race relations -- Fiction.
Immigrants -- Fiction.
Jamaicans -- England -- Fiction.
Muslim families -- Fiction.
Great Britain -- Social conditions -- 1945- -- Fiction.
London (England) -- Fiction.
Assimilation (Sociology) -- Fiction.
Interracial marriage -- Fiction.
Genetic engineering -- Fiction.
Fate and fatalism -- Fiction.
Ethnic relations -- Fiction.
Male friendship -- Fiction.
Race relations -- Fiction.
Immigrants -- Fiction.
Jamaicans -- England -- Fiction.
Muslim families -- Fiction.
Great Britain -- Social conditions -- 1945- -- Fiction.
London (England) -- Fiction.
Target Audience: 960L
ISBN:
0375703861
More Formats
"Originally published ... by Hamish Hamilton, London, and subsequently ... by Random House, Inc., New York, in 2000"--Title page verso.
Guardian First Book Award, 2000.
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction, 2000.
Whitbread Award, 2000.
Guardian First Book Award, 2000.
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction, 2000.
Whitbread Award, 2000.