White Teeth is a 2000 novel by the British author Zadie Smith. It focuses on the later lives of two wartime friends—the Bangladeshi Samad Iqbal and the Englishman Archie Jones, and their families in London. The book won multiple honours, including the 2000 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction, the 2000 Whitbread Book Award in category best first novel, the Guardian First Book Award, the Commonwealth Writers First Book Prize, and the Betty Trask Award. Time magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.
It's New Year's Day 1975 at the beginning of the novel, and we are introduced to Archie Jones, a 47-year-old man whose disturbed Italian wife has just walked out on him. Archie is attempting to commit suicide by gassing himself in his car, when a chance interruption causes him to change his mind. Filled with a fresh enthusiasm for life, Archie flips a coin and finds his way into the aftermath of a New Year's Eve party. There he meets the much-younger Clara, a Jamaican woman whose mother is a devout Jehovah's Witness. They are soon married and have a daughter, Irie, who grows up to be intelligent but with low self-confidence.
White teeth, white teeth
Talent is rugged determination
Skill is a little more dull
Genius buggers straight conversation
Makes sure that it's ass is full
So good looking people don't write no poetry
They're too busy holding their hands
You don't go to beach for depth of thought
If your brain's leaking grains of sand
'Cos white teeth are uglier than yellow teeth
False gums never make plans
Little stones hold big stories underneath
But the big stones go to the dance
The big stones go to the dance
When model puts pen to paper
Paper tends to turn to stone
'Cause original thoughts so hard to squeeze
From a face so easy to clone
So good looking people don't write no poetry
They're too busy holding their hands
You don't go to beach for depth of thought
If your brain's leaking grains of sand
'Cos white teeth are uglier than yellow teeth
False gums never make plans
Little stones hold big stories underneath
But the big stones go to the dance
The big stones go to the dance
Whilst the dedicated cancelled the dates on their latest tour
'Cause genius had played that route ten times before
Hardwork made the excuse of being too hardcore
Yes don't fire shots from double barrel if you know you're single bore
'Cos white teeth are uglier than yellow teeth
False gums never make plans
Little stones hold big stories underneath
But the big stones go to the dance
The big stones go to the dance
The big stones go to the dance
White teeth, white teeth
Talent is rugged determination
Skill is a little more dull
Genius buggers straight conversation
Makes sure that it's ass is full
So good looking people don't write no poetry
They're too busy holding their hands
You don't go to beach for depth of thought
If your brain's leaking grains of sand
'Cos white teeth are uglier than yellow teeth
False gums never make plans
Little stones hold big stories underneath
But the big stones go to the dance
The big stones go to the dance
When model puts pen to paper
Paper tends to turn to stone
'Cause original thoughts so hard to squeeze
From a face so easy to clone
So good looking people don't write no poetry
They're too busy holding their hands
You don't go to beach for depth of thought
If your brain's leaking grains of sand
'Cos white teeth are uglier than yellow teeth
False gums never make plans
Little stones hold big stories underneath
But the big stones go to the dance
The big stones go to the dance
Whilst the dedicated cancelled the dates on their latest tour
'Cause genius had played that route ten times before
Hardwork made the excuse of being too hardcore
Yes don't fire shots from double barrel if you know you're single bore
'Cos white teeth are uglier than yellow teeth
False gums never make plans
Little stones hold big stories underneath
But the big stones go to the dance
The big stones go to the dance
The big stones go to the dance
The big stones go to the dance