Zadie Smith was twenty-five when White Teeth was published. But the wisdom about bad marriages could have come from a much older soul. As with many such marriages, the end comes in ways never anticipated and is harder to deal with than if the union had once been warm and loving
Archie’s marriage felt like buying a pair of shoes, taking them home, and finding they don’t fit. For the sake of appearances, he put up with them. And then, all of a sudden and after thirty years, the shoes picked themselves up and walked out of the house. She left. Thirty years.
Soon thereafter she has the most apropos definition of what comes at the end of such unsatisfactory union
This is what divorce is: taking things you no longer want from people you no longer love.
This is one of those books that I have meant to read since it was published but am only a couple of decades too late. And it is only for the better I think - the hubbub around it has died down a while back though it still features in the lists of best fiction of the century. I did not want to miss out entirely
To her credit, she starts out strong but the its very hard to stay in a flow state with this book - an essential quality of any well-written book. The book and the reader need to get to that place where reading becomes a pleasurable, immersive experience. The level of distraction caused by the chatter of the characters (of which there are too many to count) and the commentary by the author on such chatter gets to the point where the plot line if any dissolves.
I can see how it might lend itself to a television series - you can only take so much of this hot mess at a time but spread out over several seasons one hour at a time might work. I was hoping to read a novel but got a screen play for a multi-season show instead - just could not soldier on past the Miseductation of Irie- which got me two thirds of the way. I wish the author had broken this all up into a set of shorts. It would also serve the reader better if there were more brilliant observations about the human condition and less desire for full cultural immersion with every fringe character clamoring for limelight in their own variant of English.
All that said, it was interesting to be transported back to less politically correct times - when people spoke and acted without filters. There is something cathartic about it for a reader.
Comments