White Noise
A brilliant satire of mass culture and the numbing effects of technology, White Noisetells 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 their 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.
Stats for nerds
13recommend
24mentions
24people
2008–2026years
54% recommend46% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- A lot of my absolutely favorite books are rated below 4.0. A few examples:
1. White Noise at 3.86
2. Catch-22 at 3.99
3. Dhalgren at 3.77
4. At Swim-Two-Birds at 3.86
5. Midnight's Children at 3.98
6. Омон Ра at 3.90
7. Never Let Me Go at 3.84
Drawing the line at 4 rules out some of the most interesting books.
In my experience, you really have to fall below 3.5 to get consistently bad books, and even then it's not 100% guaranteed.
- I _liked_ but didn’t _love_ Underworld. Only DeLillo I’ve read so far, but maybe I need to move White Noise up on my list.
- Interesting observation. I've read White Noise and a couple other DeLillo novels, it's a little difficult to describe, but I was put in a very strange state of mind after reading his work, kind of like glimpsing some hidden inner reality. Somewhat like The Stand by Stephen King.
We had a fertilizer plant go up in flames last year about this time in Winston-Salem, NC, which is 50 miles from us which was alarming even at this radius.
- When it comes to post-Underworld DeLillo, as far as I am concerned his major novel of that period, and really the only work that sticks in the memory after a few weeks (and I have read them all) is Falling Man.
If you are asking about books from any period of his output, then White Noise can be recommended, I personally see it as his greatest achievement. Underworld gets a lot of hype due to its sheer length but I don’t find it particularly impressive or moving.
- There is no better time to read DeLillo's "White Noise" and learn about "The Airborne Toxic Event".
- White Noise, by Don Delillo. It's a great story in general and reading it helped me acknowledge my fear of death and how it affected me.
Edit: oh, and since I don't think anyone else has mentioned them yet ... Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban, and Grendel by John Gardner. Their impact on me was less specific so harder to explain, but they're great books that get mentioned on HN now and then. Another one that kind of blew my mind is The Infernal Desire Machines of Dr. Hoffmann by Angela Carter.
