White Noise

[James]

People may call me an uneducated Muppet if they wish, but this book was in my opinion long winded and pointless. I do see the point he is making about our consumerism and how it is eroding our life and blinding us to the better things in the world. Did it take so long to make the point though? Did he have to make the characters so easy to dislike and what the hell was he doing with his wife? "That is what Babbette is for" why is making her out to be a household appliance? Urgh. Please feel free to explain this waste of my life to me.

[Michelle]

I actually liked White Noise a lot. I don't quite remember why, but I remember that I liked it (I read it for a class and it was sandwiched in a semester with Chaucer and Shakespeare...).

However, if you want to experience the true awfulness that Delillo can write (I generally like him, but this book was absolutely abhorrent), read Underworld. It's 800 pages of potentially clever wordplay that never delivers.

Better yet, save yourself and the $15 bucks...

[A.C.]

I like white noise because it was a potent commentary on both our postmodern condition as well as the disarray that occurs in both the academic facilities as well as at home. The family, after the toxic fallout, had to reconcile its own existence and confront its own fears. The consumerism is an important part of the story, but it's only one part of the story. As you can tell, I really enjoyed this book a lot.

Much like Michelle, I hated Underworld. It was overwritten and just did absolutely nothing for me. I know people who love it, but I think those people are a bit unsound or just like overwritten books.

[Jason]

I enjoyed White Noise for the reasons you hated it, James. I felt DeLillo was fully conscious of the choices he was making, and wanted to grate the reader a bit. Those long descriptions where he goes through the grocery lists, for example (I'm sort of improvising here, haven't read it in several years), might become old, but I think very effectively create the atmosphere of modern life. I think it's one of the best titled books I've ever read, suggesting he expects his reader to become numbed to his work. As far as taking too long to get to the point--it seemed like a pretty compact novel to me. Perhaps it's just his style that dragged you down? But again, that repetition and endless feeling hits the note of our cultural white noise perfectly.

That said, I wasn't so excited about it that I want to read any more DeLillo. I get mixed reviews, but not enough raves to encourage me. I've heard Libra is good, but JFK just doesn't interest me.

[S.]

I read White Noise this year and really enjoyed it. I'd never read De Lillo before and half expected something incomprehensible but I found it all clear, and while a pretty depressing commentary (and prophesy) it was also entertaining and made me laugh.
I read somewhere that he had wanted to title the "Panasonic," but the Panasonic people said no.
Anyway, I like it when someone honestly says how much they dislike something a lot of other people like, so thanks for sharing that opinion James.