White Noise (Contemporary American Fiction): Amazon.co.uk: Don DeLillo: Books

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Customer Reviews

16 Reviews

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

Average Customer Review

3.4 out of 5 stars (16 customer reviews)

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18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars His most outstanding work by far - a masterpiece, 17 April 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: White Noise (Picador Books) (Paperback)

Reading this book staggered me: the phrasing is so spot on, the themes so unusual yet compelling, the dialogue so full of witty, off-the-wall observation that I was left marvelling at the author's magical ability to put words together in unusual yet telling combinations and searching bookshops for more of his books. But having read three others from different periods of his career (the vastly overrated 'Underworld', the execrable 'Ratner's Star' and the mixed 'Great Jones Street') I am left in little doubt that this is his chef d'oeuvre. By some fortunate inspiration, DeLillo discovered his perfect theme for this book: fear of death. He takes this theme and looks at it from all possible angles; yet this is not at all a morbid book. It is instead the funniest black comedy around: the exchange between Jack and his wife when preparing to have sex made me explode with laughter. I found the latter so hilarious that I even shared it with one of my advanced English as a foreign language classes, whose eyes were standing on stalks by the end! Last but certainly not least, DeLillo's understanding of the impact of popular culture on our minds and lives is remarkable: he forced me to make connections about the insidious influence of technology and the media that I would certainly never otherwise have made, and continue to bear in mind every time I read a newspaper or switch on my computer. If you only ever read one contemporary novel, read this one: this is the book that encapsulates our time, not 'Underworld'.

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22 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Complicated but accessible, 21 Feb 2003

By	D. M. York (Manchester, UK) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: White Noise (Picador Books) (Paperback)

White Noise can be a difficult book to read, though I suppose it can depend at which level you are reading this. There are many layers to this book, many things that University lecturers could pick at and write papers upon subtle little literary techniques although this is also a book that can be enjoyed just as a work of fiction.

It deals with many of the more pressing issues of a modern American society, dealing especially with the issue of the fragmented family consisting of numerous half and step siblings while also looking into the massive cult obsession of the fear of death.

While in many instances this novel can seem especially complicated, I found it to be a real page turner, and was always eager to turn to the next chapter.

So why not give it a go?

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10 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Amazingly overated, 21 Feb 2008

By	Mr. S. Woodcock (England) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: White Noise (Picador Books) (Paperback)

This was my introduction to Delillo and it was a huge disapointment, leaving me puzzled as to what people find so brilliant about him. The characters are awful cardboard contructs who nobody could ever care about for a moment. The plot is non-existent. I know, I know, it is a brilliant post modern satire on consumerist society and disaster as spectacle and plot is not the point. But you know what, it is not brilliant abd books do actually need plots or at least stories. Pretty much every theme in it had been dealt with by earlier writers so it felt curiously old fashioned for a mid eighties book. The philosophical musings are half baked and hardly insightful.

Oh and the humour, well, it just isnt funny. Didnt make me laugh anyway. I feel a bit bad slamming an author like this. He did his best no doubt and good luck to him but the critical acclaim is just astonishing.

The final thing that people talk about is his writing - the brilliant phrases and glittering sentences. Well, I will have to say the quality of the writing was what made me grind on for a hundred pages in the hope that something might happen or that the characters might somehow become more engaging and less one dimensional. It was pretty good. Not the prose of genius as it is sometimes described but he turns a neat phrase here and there. And to be ultra fair the idea of Hitler Studies was probably pretty clever in 1984 or so.

But really, who wants to read hundreds of pages of this sort of damp attack on consumerism. The praise heaped on it seems to typify what has gone wrong with literary fiction and the criticism of literature.

Worth a read if you are wanting to strike literary poses, if you want a story worth reading don't bother.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Just about OK
All in all, I was not too engaged with White Noise, although it does contain some interesting ideas. Read more

Published 3 months ago by Em Owens

3.0 out of 5 stars white noise
this is the first Delillo book i have read and it will not be the last.i found this book quite enjoyable. there was not much of a story, but it was something different. Read more

Published 9 months ago by Mr. M. Bounds

1.0 out of 5 stars One star is too much praise!
When one picks up a book from the "Cult Fiction" section in any bookshop, it's normally there for a reason. Read more

Published 13 months ago by J. Kuscher

4.0 out of 5 stars Postmodern Classic? what it means to be alive!
I've come to this book from reading the ideas studied in Post-modernism and the novel came recommended along the lines of Paul Auster and Thomas Pynchon. Read more

Published 14 months ago by Mr. P. Rigby

3.0 out of 5 stars Curate's Egg
Some nice ideas and some good lines but it just doesn't seem to hang together. Given its frequent comic pretensions it has the major failing of - well - not being very funny. Read more

Published on 7 Nov 2007 by W. Jones

5.0 out of 5 stars Love this book...
This is one of my all time favourite books. Contrary to other reviews, I found this the most accessible of Delillo's fiction. Read more

Published on 19 Jun 2007 by Tiny Dancer

1.0 out of 5 stars Unbelievable
After reading Pynchon, which I found to be one of the best authors I ever read, I was looking for something along the same lines. Read more

Published on 9 Nov 2005 by Jose Barbosa

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Entertaining
Although not the most exciting book I have ever read, i couldn't put it down! Almost every page contained a brilliant and funny observation of American society. Read more

Published on 3 Jul 2005 by Pete

3.0 out of 5 stars Tough going
This is the first De Lillo book that I have read and found it tough going. Comparisons with Palanhiuk and Easton Ellis are short of the mark in my view. Read more

Published on 10 April 2005 by T. C. Hogg

5.0 out of 5 stars a fine example of post-modern American literature
This novel is best read by those with at least a basic understanding of post-modern literary concepts. Read more

Published on 24 Sep 2002

› See all 16 customer reviews...

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White Noise (Contemporary American Fiction) (Paperback)

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