White Noise

White NoiseWinner of the National Book Award a "eerie, brilliant, and touching" (New York Times) family drama about mass culture and the numbing effects of technology Jack Gladney teaches Hitler studies at a liberal arts college in Middle America where his colleagues include New York expatriates who want to immerse themselves in "American magic and dread." Jack and his fourth wife, Babette, bound by their love, fear of death, and four ultramodern offspring,

Winner of the National Book Award - a "eerie, brilliant, and touching" (New York Times) family drama about mass culture and the numbing effects of technology

Jack Gladney teaches Hitler studies at a liberal arts college in Middle America where his colleagues include New York expatriates who want to immerse themselves in "American magic and dread." Jack and his fourth wife, Babette, bound by their love, fear of death, and four ultramodern offspring, navigate the usual rocky passages of family life to the background babble of brand-name consumerism.

Then a lethal black chemical cloud floats over their lives, an "airborne toxic event" unleashed by an industrial accident. The menacing cloud is a more urgent and visible version of the "white noise" engulfing the Gladney family--radio transmissions, sirens, microwaves, ultrasonic appliances, and TV murmerings--pulsing with life, yet heralding the danger of death.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Group
Published: 01/07/1986
ISBN: 9780140077025
Pages: 326
Weight: 0.51lbs
Size: 7.72h x 5.10w x 0.63d

Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 11/15/1985
Newsweek 09/08/2008 pg. 12
Newsweek 04/20/2009 pg. 10
Chronicle of Higher Education 08/07/2009 pg. 16