White Teeth

So I’m now one book into The Great Book Project as detailed here.

First up on the list was White Teeth by Zadie Smith. I bought the book on my lunch break last week from Waterstone’s on Sauchiehall St. I was a bit disheartened when I saw the book. Not only was it thick, but it also had the slight air of a chick flick about it (reinforced when one of my colleagues at work said “Oh, you buy a book for Gemma?”).

Lets get something straight about me. I’m a graphic designer. I can’t help judging a book by its cover. To me the cover said: “Hi, I’m Bridget Jones and I’ve just joined the Slumdog Millionaire party”. But my fears were quickly put to rest after reading several blurbs on the back, including this one which, after reading the book, I think best illustrates the books essence:

An impressive début, not only for its vitality and verve, but mainly for the sheer audacity of its scope and vision…an epic tale..swooping, funny..it has ambition, wit and is unafraid

First off I need to mention that I’m not blogging about this to give myself an opportunity at being some kind of Literary Critic. For me it’s all about the Journey (Man).

This project requires a fair bit of adjustment on my part. Too much of my time is spent on the internets, with the F5 button on my keyboard accounting for about 99% of lost time in my life (the other 1% waiting on Gemma getting ready). This last week I’ve consciously removed myself from the comp when I found I was just killing time, went over to the couch and got into the aforementioned book. I’ve enjoyed it. Going that extra mile when it comes to a book. I’d be lucky if I’d spend more than an half an hour at a time in the past. These few days have been different. Proper sittings. I’ll see how this pans out over the coming books.

Multicultural London

I really enjoyed the book. It is, as mentioned in the quote above, an EPIC story. It follows three families through several generations, who are all all brought together by the friendship of Archie Jones, a once suicidal bloke incapable of making a decision, and Samad Iqbal, a Muslim who is determined to make his mark on the world. Every character is entertaining and funny in their own way. Zadie Smith makes a harsh reality laughable.

It’s essentially a story about how cultures, faiths and different generations are at war with each other. Each one convinced of their own righteousness. Sounds like a serious concept? Yeah it is, but I think this book received praise because it goes about it in such a laugh-out-loud-how-crazy-is-the-world kinda’ way. One of the most enjoyable aspects for me was the way the booked jumped between time-lines, stopping almost abruptly in a scene to go back, forward and/or diagonal. As a result you got a real in-depth insight into the life of each character. Reminded me of ’500 Days of Summer’ that way. Only it wasn’t 500 days we are talking here. It was from 1857-1999. As is said: EPIC.

I’ve been thinking it’s weird that this one came up as my first book on the project. The books central themes are based around topics that I am really interested in. Obsessively interested in. Religion and Science. How they bounce of each other. How they fucking collide. I came out thinking that this book is fuel for an atheists argument, but I think that’s me taking the book a tad too seriously.

A great start!

7/10.

Next up is The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. See ya soon!