Scan barcode
greg_m's review
5.0
Jack and Babette Cladney live with their four children (each from different marriages) in a New England town called Blacksmith. The both of them, living through the constant buzzing of the capitalist, commercially-driven "white noise" of modern life, are terrified of their own impending death. When Jack is exposed to a black, billowing toxic cloud that he is told will eventually kill him (no specific time-frame, just that he will die someday) and Babette starts taking an experimental drug to calm her mind, they have to come to grips with the most basic of human desires.
The characters behave in much the way one would expect from a DeLillo cast. They are very eloquent and philosophical and so composed even in the most agitating scenes. More specifically, the whole Gladney family was hysterical in each of their neuroticisms. DLillo pairs this well with Wilder's (the youngest) more innocent look on life. Any scene that had the six of them talking and getting all the facts wrong (the temperature of space, camels storing food, tidal waves from Japan called "origamis") was a joy to read. The conversations at the college cafeteria reminds me of the conversations I might have with my own friends.
The characters behave in much the way one would expect from a DeLillo cast. They are very eloquent and philosophical and so composed even in the most agitating scenes. More specifically, the whole Gladney family was hysterical in each of their neuroticisms. DLillo pairs this well with Wilder's (the youngest) more innocent look on life. Any scene that had the six of them talking and getting all the facts wrong (the temperature of space, camels storing food, tidal waves from Japan called "origamis") was a joy to read. The conversations at the college cafeteria reminds me of the conversations I might have with my own friends.
williemajeska's review against another edition
informative
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
vampirehelpdesk's review
dark
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
vivian_m_anderson's review against another edition
medium-paced
4.75
what a fascinating book! delillo has such a gift for bizarre yet evocative descriptions, and this book left me with genuine questions about life, consumerism, and death
zilin13560's review against another edition
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
bren17's review against another edition
Will hopefully come back to this at some point as I think it’s probably good, but I’m too tired for this much zaniness right now
landonwittmer's review against another edition
4.0
A brilliant book, but I've never read something that feels more like a puzzle to be decoded than it does narrative fiction. Hyper modernist in a way that, to me, is appreciated on a cerebral level but not enjoyed emotionally. *White Noise* feels like the the book everyone straw-mans as "high academia," a book you need several masters degrees and a conspiracy stringboard to glean everything you can from the novel. I still took much away from the book, but I feel like I'm missing something since I didn't study this book with help from a professor or similar mentor or resource.
DeLillo's prose is incredible, but I feel he overdoes it in this book. Paragraphs went a little too long with his language play (in my opinion), which slowed the book more than I think was necessary. And why does he write dialogue like that?
All in all, a great book that felt more concerned with concepts and theory than with its narrative. For a similar book more grounded in its characters, I cannot recommend enough the Patrick Melrose novels.
DeLillo's prose is incredible, but I feel he overdoes it in this book. Paragraphs went a little too long with his language play (in my opinion), which slowed the book more than I think was necessary. And why does he write dialogue like that?
All in all, a great book that felt more concerned with concepts and theory than with its narrative. For a similar book more grounded in its characters, I cannot recommend enough the Patrick Melrose novels.
dellaposta's review against another edition
5.0
At first, I thought I was not going to love this book. It felt like it was going to be another 80s-era rant about the evils of consumerism and stuff like that. However, Delillo ends up taking the reader much deeper than that in this strange and wonderful book about all of the ploys humans invent to stave off the fear of death, as well as the different ways that we seek collective social experiences. But the book definitely isn’t purely a “novel of ideas” like this description might suggest. It is also an often very funny satire. The way that Delillo writes dialogue takes some getting used to, but I actually quite liked it. And while some characters just feel like mouthpieces for the author, I also found them to be engaging and even endearing. Surprisingly, the social commentary still feels relevant and prescient even more than 30 years later.
jayseewhy's review
4.0
This was an interesting read. At times hilarious and absurd, at others engrossing and thought-provoking. I’d be hard-pressed to describe what the book is about, but the fear of death was a key theme.