Don DeLillo - White Noise

Pros: Postmodern commentary on twentieth-century commercialism and its relationship to basic human emotions.
Cons: Graphic sexual scenes; offensive criticism of faith; not universal in its appeal.

WHITE NOISE, BLACK DEATH The television is a fascinating audio experience; it may sing, explain, or serve as rhetoric. Through its intricate speakers emerge synthesized sound effects; children’s laughter; angry words from a quarreling couple; the ...

Pros: Very good darkly comic fiction.
Cons: May be off-putting to those who do not care for abstract writing.

I admit that it wasn't until as of late that Don DeLillo had largely managed to stay off of my radar screen. I knew the name vaguely, although I had never read any of his writings. Then I happened to gaze across the bargain rack at Waldenbooks one Sunday ...

Pros: Precise prose, stark themes, mounds of black comedy
Cons: More episodic than narrational, all-encompassing darkness

I recently finished Don DeLillo's "White Noise" for the third time. The first time, as a high schooler, it seemed like a harsh condemnation of mass media and its effect on our everyday lives. The second time, as an undergraduate, it seemed like a...

Pros: Hilarious novel that walks the edge of satire.
Cons: One homophobic moment, easy to ignore. Ignore it.

Don DeLillo began his career writing thriller-like books in the 1970s, when that motherlode of thriller material, the Cold War, was nearing its crescendo. I remember seeing his books in the early 1980s, but I brushed past them, seeing nothing in their...

Pros: clever, intelligent, engaging
Cons: post-modern, sometimes too clever for its own good

Jack Gladney is the pre-eminent man of Hitler studies in North America. Literally creating the branch of study, Gladney's name has become synonymous with that of Hitler. That he cannot read or write or speak German is a prime example of the 'serious ...

Pros: Insightful themes, complemented by the unusual writing style and structure of the book
Cons: Wearisome plot, weak ending

I have a tendency, when reviewing a book for Epinions, to focus too much on my own interpretations of its theme instead of focusing on how the different elements of the story come together as a whole. While this may get me an A in English, I feel it ...

Pros: themes, amusing side characters, flow
Cons: overwritten, episodic

White Noise is a book about death. It is a book about American life in a technological and scientific age. It is a book about a quiet, upper-middle class life. Don Delillo contemplates these themes throughout the novel about a middle-aged private...

Pros: A satirical take on the postmodern community
Cons: Some may not like DeLillo's break with typical reader expectation

We all know the feeling of sitting down to a nice meal of Spam with the family when our dearest family member, the tv, says, "Cotton, the fabric of our lives." The genius of DeLillo in White Noise is that he captures in often hilarious and...

Pros: a well-written postmodern novel
Cons: none

In my opinion, Dan DeLillo is a literary genius. I have read his novel White Noise three times and every time I read it, I am amazed at the depths of the observations that DeLillo is able to make about our modern society.

White Noise...

Pros: Funny, Intelligent, Illustrative, Thought-provoking
Cons: Sometimes quirky and postmodern to a fault

DeLillo's novels, like the title of this one suggests, buzz with information and intrigue. Jack Gladney, the protagonist, is a professor of "Hitler Studies" at a great American college; an academic who is comically humanized off of the...

Pros: It's not as bad as Thomas Pynchon.
Cons: Boring as Hell, except that Dante makes Hell interesting.

I was forced to buy this book for a class on American fiction. The main character of White Noise is extremely boring, and Mister DeLillo is trying desperately (and unsuccessfully) to persuade me he is interesting. He even goes so far as to use the ...