White Noise - Softcover

Don DeLillo

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0330524844 ISBN 13: 9780330524841

Publisher: Picador USA, 2011

'An extraordinarily funny book on a serious subject, effortlessly combining social comedy, disaster, fiction and philosophy ...hilariously, and grimly, successful' Daily Telegraph Jack Gladney is the creator and chairman of Hitler studies at the College-on-the-Hill. This is the story of his absurd life; a life that is going well enough, until a chemical spill from a rail car releases an 'Airborne Toxic Event' and Jack is forced to confront his biggest fear his own mortality. White Noise is an effortless combination of social satire and metaphysical dilemma in which DeLillo exposes our rampant consumerism, media saturation and novelty intellectualism. It captures the particular strangeness of life lived when the fear of death cannot be denied, repressed or obscured and ponders the role of the family in a time when the very meaning of our existence is under threat. 'An astonishing novel ...unforgettable ...nearly every page crackles with memorable moments and perfectly turned phrases ...dizzying, darkly beautiful fiction' Sunday Times

Review:

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.

From the Publisher:

9 1.5-hour cassettes

• Publisher: Picador USA
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0330524844
• ISBN 13: 9780330524841
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384