MixedThe Washington PostWhat she has to say in her brilliant and troubling debut novel, White Teeth, is said from the vantage point of both the colonized and the colonizer. But her purpose here, clearly, is not to afflict the comfortable or comfort the afflicted … Unlike many who have written about the immigrant experience, Smith doesn't protest about what (or who) occupies the center and what exists at the margins of society … No author is obligated to do anything but write what she sees...Smith is a fascinating new talent, with a depth, breadth and insight that many older writers do not express. But, for me, White Teeth exists in the curious, not-so-brave world of recent narrative where blacks serve as a convenient sideshow.
