I had an amazing mentor who spoke words of wisdom into my writing world. Next to obliterating the writer’s block giant [it doesn’t exist…but more on that another time] I’d created, he told me “the writer is always reading”. That challenged me yet opened the door for an exciting journey. The first book to pave the way is Zadie Smith’s first novel, White Teeth.
The book on the right is the lovely White Teeth in hardback.
It is set in England and follows the late lives of two older men Archie Jones and Samad Iqbal who went through war together. From the first few pages I’ve read–I’m not that far in—I love the humor of White Teeth. Some of it is blatant and other times it’s subtle and you’ll find yourself chuckling unexpectedly.
Another thing that I’ve really loved is Smith’s usage of dialogue. For me personally, I struggle with dialogue that drives the story, is life-giving and fruitful. I could also have a warped understanding of dialogue, regardless, Zadie Smith does a good job with it. She also plays with the accents of the characters which is fun to watch unfold. One of the characters is Jamaican and she does a unique job in writing out the accent to give the reader a grid. I really loved that technique.
What’s my take on it? So far so good. It’s taking me a little while to really sink my teeth into it but so far it’s tasty and fun to navigate through. A theme that is emerging is the role of the wives who are substantially younger than Samad and Archie. There is a particular scene where you can see how religious upbringing greatly affects how they view themselves within relationship. I’m interested to see how this is further explored.
coffeeshoptuesdays 