White Noise (Contemporary American Fiction) | 
|  | | | Title: | White Noise (Contemporary American Fiction) | | Author: | Don DeLillo | | Publisher: | Penguin (Non-Classics) | | Type: | Book / Paperback | | Publication Date: | 07 January, 1986 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0140077022 / 9780140077025 | | List Price: | $14.00 | | You Save: | $2.80 | | Amazon Price: | $11.20 | |
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Book Description
Winner of the National Book Award, White Noise was immediately hailed as Don DeLillo's "breakout novel" when it first appeared in 1985. The novel entertains a wide array of compelling topics and concerns with consummate agility. Study this spot-on satire of post-war America. The title, Don DeLillo’s White Noise, part of Chelsea House Publishers’ Modern Critical Interpretations series, presents the most important 20th-century criticism on Don DeLillo’s White Noise through extracts of critical essays by well-known literary critics. This collection of criticism also features a short biography on Don DeLillo, a chronology of the author’s life, and an introductory essay written by Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, Yale University.
Amazon.com
Better than any book I can think of, White Noise captures the particular strangeness of life in a time where humankind has finally learned enough to kill itself. Naturally, it's a terribly funny book, and the prose is as beautiful as a sunset through a particulate-filled sky. Nice-guy narrator Jack Gladney teaches Hitler Studies at a small college. His wife may be taking a drug that removes fear, and one day a nearby chemical plant accidentally releases a cloud of gas that may be poisonous. Writing before Bhopal and Prozac entered the popular lexicon, DeLillo produced a work so closely tuned into its time that it tells the future.
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Customer Reviews:
• Good But Not Exceptionally Original 04 May, 2008
Delilo's White Noise is an existentialist tale about people's relationships with the media, technology, mortality and each other. It's a well written book that has some creative scenes (those in the grocery store) and characters (Murray, Wilder)that give the book depth. Delilo uses these strengths to explore his main themes.
However, I didn't think his ideas were very original, and so I only gave his book 3 stars.
Mankind's love/hate with technology was captured in Frankenstein, so it's nothing new here. The absurdist's dilemma of how to live in a godless world goes back to Camus and Dostoievski. So, while Delilo creates a novel with depth, he doesn't create a novel novel.
I think that reading the authors above would be a better way to spend your time.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3F4HPD1QGNDT1
• The Meaning Of Life 03 June, 2008
Turn your radio to AM and randomly switch from channel to channel. Record the snippets of call-in questions, sports reports, legal advice, and advertising slogans that follow. Read it as you would a story. It's disjointed, sure, but every once in awhile, you'll find a moment of transcendent brilliance. Like this book by Don DeLillo. He's taken nutrition labels, manufacturer specs, commercials, newscasts, popular music, history, religious polemics (I could go on) and woven his soundbytes into a story of a man and a woman who are terrified of death, a toxic cloud, speculation on the similarities between Elvis and Hitler, and ultimately, the question of meaning.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3JMMU5YE97WRZ
• A Masterpiece Of Satire And Prose 18 March, 2008
By R.Taylor (Not BLT Taylor and not a music review). My first impression of "White Noise" by Don DeLillo was that this book was scattered and going nowhere. But with an author of such acclaim, I went back and started again. This is when I saw the satire and caught its impact and the strong messages about the fear of death and the role it plays in our lives, and how we deal with, or try to avoid dealing with, the fear of death. DeLillo's message about our conventions, diversions and obsessions that we utilize as our "white noise" to deal with the daily rat race also came home with a poignant, and sometimes
comical impact. The book provided great food for thought and discussion for our monthly book club.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3NW8JX2WNKQLT
• The Toneless Systems 19 May, 2008
I can't believe how many negative reviews there are of this book here. Don't listen to these naysayers. This book is unbelievable! Not only is it written in an awe-inspiring prose, but it also has a lot to say. It is a very big book, considering the mere 326 pages of text.
This book reads like an epic, and is critical of media, consumer culture, the modern family unit, violence, fear of death, and probably a hell of a lot more.
An interesting quote from a Delillo interview: " I see contemporary violence as a kind of sardonic response to the promise of consumer fulfillment in America."
This is one of the few modern books to make it on Professor's reading lists throughout the country's campuses, which is saying a lot considering the names of postmodern sensibility- Pynchon, Kundera, Vonnegut, Erickson, Danielewski, McCarthy, etc.
This is the only Delillo book I have read, but I'm psyched to read the slew of others he has-- Libra, Underworld and Mao II, to name a few. Do yourself a favor and read this postmodern masterpiece. This is sure to be talked about in classrooms and coffeehouses for the next fifty years or so. Don't be afraid, accept its' chaos.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3VBXSV9WZIYTH
• Edgy And Profound 09 March, 2008
If you have a taste for the edgy and profound, you must read this book. I laughed out loud several times while reading this...it stands out as brilliantly conceived and just plain fun. Definitely the work of an intelligent and astute male writer. It is disjointed and there are a lot of nonsequiturs interspersed throughout the story, but this is actually kind of the point. I enjoyed being treated to the common dilemma of Americans in America through the eyes of the narrator, who seemed quite sane until the end...but getting through to the end makes it entirely worthwhile. I admire the ending and wasn't quite sure how he would pull it off, but he did. The dialogue is what really makes this fun to read...there are entire conversations between people that would never plausibly take place in reality and yet they somehow resonate with the reality we experience, the unspoken agreements. This is not a traditional novel and you should be prepared for that and in the mood for something witty and verbose prior to embarking.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2V3JXK6SI6C2Q
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