Staff Pick
A thoroughly endearing and post-modern examination of family, consumerism, truth, and dread/death anxiety. The hilarious cast of characters' confusion about everyday events becomes increasingly relatable as you read on! Fun and good! Recommended By Adam B., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Jack Gladney teaches Hitler studies at a liberal arts college in Middle America where his colleagues include New York expatriates who want to immerse themselves in "American magic and dread." Jack and his fourth wife, Babette, bound by their love, fear of death, and four ultramodern offspring, navigate the usual rocky passages of family life to the background babble of brand-name consumerism.
Then a lethal black chemical cloud floats over their lives, an "airborne toxic event" unleashed by an industrial accident. The menacing cloud is a more urgent and visible version of the "white noise" engulfing the Gladney family — radio transmissions, sirens, microwaves, ultrasonic appliances, and TV murmurings — pulsing with life, yet heralding the danger of death.
Review
"It is in documenting such epidemic evasiveness and apprehension, such lack of connection to the natural world and to technology, such bewilderment, that White Noise succeeds so brilliantly....White Noise offers no answers, but it poses inescapable questions with consummate skill." Jayne Anne Phillips, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"The most adventurous and original fiction in recent times." Chicago Tribune
Review
"One of Delillo's funniest novels to date....Eerie, brilliant, and touching." The New York Times
Synopsis
Winner of the National Book Award a eerie, brilliant, and touching (New York Times) family drama about mass culture and the numbing effects of technology Jack Gladney teaches Hitler studies at a liberal arts college in Middle America where his colleagues include New York expatriates who want to immerse themselves in "American magic and dread." Jack and his fourth wife, Babette, bound by their love, fear of death, and four ultramodern offspring, navigate the usual rocky passages of family life to the background babble of brand-name consumerism.
Then a lethal black chemical cloud floats over their lives, an "airborne toxic event" unleashed by an industrial accident. The menacing cloud is a more urgent and visible version of the "white noise" engulfing the Gladney family--radio transmissions, sirens, microwaves, ultrasonic appliances, and TV murmerings--pulsing with life, yet heralding the danger of death.
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Synopsis
Winner of the National Book Award - an "eerie, brilliant, and touching" (New York Times) family drama about mass culture and the numbing effects of technology, from the author of The Silence Jack Gladney teaches Hitler studies at a liberal arts college in Middle America where his colleagues include New York expatriates who want to immerse themselves in American magic and dread. Jack and his fourth wife, Babette, bound by their love, fear of death, and four ultramodern offspring, navigate the usual rocky passages of family life to the background babble of brand-name consumerism.
Then a lethal black chemical cloud floats over their lives, an airborne toxic event unleashed by an industrial accident. The menacing cloud is a more urgent and visible version of the white noise engulfing the Gladney family--radio transmissions, sirens, microwaves, ultrasonic appliances, and TV murmerings--pulsing with life, yet heralding the danger of death.
Synopsis
The National Book Award-winning classic from the author of Underworld and Libra--an "eerie, brilliant, and touching" (New York Times) family drama about mass culture and the numbing effects of technology--soon to be a major motion picture starring Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig
White Noise tells the story of Jack Gladney, his fourth wife, Babette, and four ultramodern offspring as they navigate the rocky passages of family life to the background babble of brand-name consumerism. When an industrial accident unleashes an airborne toxic event, a lethal black chemical cloud floats over their lives. The menacing cloud is a more urgent and visible version of the white noise engulfing the Gladneys--radio transmissions, sirens, microwaves, ultrasonic appliances, and TV murmurings--pulsing with life, yet heralding something ominous.
Synopsis
Jack Gladney teaches Hitler studies at a liberal arts college in Middle America where his colleagues include New york expatriates who want to immerse themselves in "American magic and dread." Jack and his fourth wife, Babette, bound by their love, fear of death, and four ultramodern offspring, navigate the usual rocky passages of family life to the background babble of brand-name consumerism.
Then a lethal black chemical cloud floats over their lives, an "airborne toxic event" unleashed by an industrial accident. The menacing cloud is a more urgent and visible version of the "white noise" engulfing the Gladney family--radio transmissions, sirens, microwaves, ultrasonic appliances, and TV murmerings--pulsing with life, yet heralding the danger of death.
About the Author
Don DeLillo published his first short story when he was twenty-three years old. He has since written twelve novels, including
White Noise (1985) which won the National Book Award. It was followed by
Libra (1988), his novel about the assassination of President Kennedy, and by
Mao II, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.
In 1997, he published the bestselling Underworld, and in 1999 he was awarded the Jerusalem Prize, given to a writer whose work expresses the theme of the freedom of the individual in society; he was the first American author to receive it. His latest novel, The Body Artist, was published in January 2001. He is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.