White Noise - Don DeLillo

White Noise

By Don DeLillo

  • Release Date: 1985-01-21
  • Genre: Literary Fiction
4 Score: 4 (From 280 Ratings)
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Description

A brilliant satire of mass culture and the numbing effects of technology, White Noise tells the story of Jack Gladney, a teacher of Hitler studies at a liberal arts college in Middle America. Jack and his fourth wife, Babette, bound by their love, fear of death, and four ultramodern offspring, navigate the rocky passages of family life to the background babble of brand-name consumerism. Then a lethal black chemical cloud, unleashed by an industrial accident, floats over there lives, an "airborne toxic event" that is a more urgent and visible version of the white noise engulfing the Gladneys—the radio transmissions, sirens, microwaves, and TV murmurings that constitute the music of American magic and dread.

Reviews

  • DeLillo’s Frightening Crystal Ball

    4
    By Tew312
    He never disappoints. While I’m sure he intended every page to be bristling with satire, this Reader, re-encountering those pages almost forty years later, finds it to be an insightful commentary, a piece of Non-Fiction depicting Suburban Consumerism in Pandemic, Facebook America. White Noise captures every nuance of our technology-driven lives as our Death-obsessed Anti-Hero tries to cope with the day-to-day realities of Professional, Social and Family Life under the damaging influence of a Plague and the realization of his wife’s and children’s exposure to the Modern World’s overwhelming noise. This novel could have been written in 2020. DeLillo’s prescience earned him Four Stars. ****

  • Finally finished

    1
    By aubreeabril
    I’ve never finished a book I hated as much as this one so I guess that’s something. My book club picked this because it’s being adapted for film but I hated it so much I’m not going to want to see it

  • First Delillo Book

    4
    By Mbb10692
    Good blend of humor and story. Well-developed characters. A bit abrupt near the end.

  • Lame

    1
    By dankreaderj
    Way too many unnecessary parts in this book which cause the plot to be long and boring.

  • White Noise

    1
    By Exiled Texan
    Brilliant writing. But dead. DeLillo writes characters as though he hoped never to have to meet or know any of them. Useful puppets. They make the arguments he wants to make about the artificiality of modern consumer society. They—and the events DeLillo drags us through—are otherwise without either depth or interest.

  • Wow

    3
    By Help, Zynga!!!
    I alternate between thinking he is so brilliantly funny or on some sort of drug. Weird and wonderful , but surely not everyone’s cup of tea. You have to “get it”.

  • white noise

    5
    By Whim1954
    wow! what an amazing book. a true classic. love the character development. plot is strange, but the writing superb.

  • Possibly DeLillo Best

    5
    By Lukester2012
    Thoroughly hilarious, clever and exceptionally creative/imaginative. Profoundly affecting.

  • My favorite book

    5
    By Kramericaa
    Constantly mesmerizing. The whole book is a highlight. Highlights within highlights. Godlike prose. Narration and dialogue. All characters. Hysterical arid-sarcasm. So much so, I wonder how many pick up on it. Not one to wolf down. Chew slowly, let it stick to the palette, marinate the mind. I've read it 5 times. Not nearly enough.

  • It's not written to excite you.

    3
    By WestD21
    It's written to make you think about the direction of our culture. Do we even notice catastrophic events any more? What would DeLillo say about today's social media craze?

Comments

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