num_pages: 326
description: A brilliant satire of mass culture and numbing effects of technology, White Noise tells the story of Jack Gladney, a teacher of Hitler studies at a liberal arts college in Middle America. Jack and his fourth wife, Babette, bound by their love, fear of death, and four ultramodern offspring, navigate the rocky passages of family life to the background babble of brand-name consumerism. Then a lethal black chemical cloud, unleashed by an industrial accident, floats over their lives, an "airborne toxic event" that is a more urgent and visible version of the white noise engulfing the Gladneys--the radio transmissions, sirens, microwaves, and TV murmurings that constitute the music of American magic and dread. White Noise won the National Book Award.
language: English
title: White Noise
titlecomplete: White Noise
characters: Babette Gladney, Dana Breedlove, Jack Gladney, Tweedy Browner
genres: Classics, American, The United States Of America, Novels, 20th Century, Literature, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction
ratings_count: 110957
awards: awardedAt: 473414400000
name: National Book Award
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 473414400000
name: National Book Critics Circle Award
category: Fiction
publisher: Penguin Books