White teeth was one of the handful I have read and I agree thought it was weak, very disappointed, thanks for your recommendations
I loved White Teeth, but maybe it has more resonance for 2nd/3rd generation immigrants ( &/or Londoners)
Anyway My recommendations:
1. Infinite Jest - D.F. Wallace : My favourite book, it's very long, takes a few hundred pages before I worked out what the hell was going on ( & having read it I'm still not entirely sure) but it has passages that are awe-inspiring & if you have ever had an addiction to anything pretty much a must read.
2. Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson: Split over two time periods the modern day & WWII, it deals with code -breaking through the years & how data has become on of the most valuable commodities of our day. It is fairly geeky, but he explains things well & the WWII sections provide sufficient action to things moving.
3. Homicide/ The Corner - David Simon: Two different books (both non-fiction), but similar enough to group together. Written by one of the writers of The Wire, the books tell some of the real tales behind the Wire. Heart-breaking & depressing they may be (The Corner more so), but still show the strength in the face of adversity that people are capable of.
4. The Power of the Dog - Don Winslow: Thriller that deals with the drug trade between America & Mexico from both sides of the conflict, the writer spent years doing research for the book so it feels realistic & Winslow started out writing detective stories(or maybe soft porn books, I've never actually bought one of those, I assume its a different Don WInslow) so it has a good pace to it.
5. Number9Dream - David Mitchell: Coming of age tale about a boy from rural Japan going to Tokyo to find his father. Starts off fairly normally, but then the line between reality & dreams rapidly becomes blurred.