Rating: 
Summary: Hilarious but disturbing look at the modern malaise
Review: One of the great works of Postmodernism...what's that mean...Postmodernism? Who knows, and who cares. What matters is that this is a great read. I haven't read a Delillo novel that has missed with me yet. His writing always reveals something new, a unique angle through which to approach our modern condition. "White Noise," the senseless noise that is created from too many inputs, the white fuzz that comes over your radio when nothing is tuned in, reveals the modern calamity of being subjected to too much...too much technology, too much inconsequential minutiae...when all that ultimately matters is that we are mortal--we all meet the same fate in the end. How do we deal with that? The characters in "White Noise" eventually implode. The nuclear family is gone, and the main character's Jack and Babette sadly enough live in a family that is more reflective of the American average...a conglomeration of kids from several previous marriages. Jack is a Professor of Hitler Studies who doesn't spreichen a lick of deutsche. Babette is terminally ill and enters a study for an experimental drug, Dylar, and a twisted liaison with the drug creator. I won't ruin the conclusion but along with the cloud of chemical spill the stage is set for devolution. Commercials, consumerism filters in and out of the story, seemingly like omniscient portents of doom and disregard, not unlike modern life. Parts of this novel, (the ones not deep and disturbing) are pure FOOTCROTFLOLF (fall out of the chair roll on the floor laugh out loud funny). As the family flees from the chemical spill or the airborne toxic event, the public announcements define the reality of experience. The chemical spill gets upgraded from a cloud of deadly chemicals to an airborne toxic event. Jack's daughter Denise can't keep up with the symptoms announced on the radio that the chemical spill is supposed to cause. "This happened once before. Everything" "Deja vu, however, was no longer a working symptom of Nyodene contamination. It had been preempted by coma, convulsions, and miscarriage. Could a nine-year-old girl suffer a miscarriage due to the power of suggestion?" Brilliant writing makes you stop and question our modern existence and the way we choose to live in the middle of technology's White Noise. This one is highly recommended from me, but I would point you in the direction of Penguin's Viking Critical Library edition of this book for complete analysis, reviews, notes and interviews from the author and his life. It makes it that much more enjoyable.
Rating: 
Summary: Poorly written, poorly read
Review: Although one would not know it from this book, words do have meanings and must be selected with at least minimal care. With no plot, no character development and no discernable raison d'etre, this book would probably not make it past a college level creative writing seminar. Don't waste your money buying it or your time reading it; there are too many other good books that deserve both.
Rating:
Summary: A really dull book
Review: This book has virtually no plot, the characterisation is almost non-existent, and it isn't funny. I bought the book because the idea of Hitler Studies was amusing, but the idea remains completely undeveloped. Maybe I missed the satire somehow, not being an American, but it seems like virtually everyone is tediously normal - apart from the fact that the children speak like adults and none of the characters are well drawn. The prose is very well constructed, but personally I like a bit of content too.Some of the other reviewers seem to think that this tedium and pointlessness is the underlying message of the book. If I thought there were enough people like this, I'd start a restaurant selling cardboard, grilled, boiled, sauteed... I'd tell customers it was a clever satire on British food.
Rating: 
Summary: An interesting read and yet....
Review: I disagree with those reviewers who believe White Noise is a satire of popular culture. This, to me, was a satire of war and an explanation of the fear surrounding death. I'm sure some of you reading this are going to roll your eyes but if you look at all his references to popular culture, you realize that it is not the most integral part of the story at all. Popular Culture extends far beyond the machines and grocery stores he describes in this novel. He uses his mistrust of certain aspects of popular culture (or really, modern technology) to emphasis the fear and mistrust he experiences throughout the novel. I do not believe his intent was to write exclusively about popular culture. A fear of death certainly influences the culture of all humankind but it is too grand to be linked only to popular culture. Moving on from that, I really didn't like this novel until I was about three-quarters of the way through it. There were parts of it that read like bad science fiction. The world of computers is moving so fast, his observations and predictions of their abilities already seems terribly outdated. Also, through half of the entire book I had trouble figuring out who was talking. A simple "he said, she said" tagged on to the end of sentences would help. There was also way too much senseless information. Perhaps he was trying to emphasize "white noise" but DeLillo seems to have the ability to write paragraph after paragraph about nothing. He spends a page and a half describing a sunset he already explained several chapters earlier. There were some great scenes in this book. The debate between Murphy and the protagonist with Elvis vs. Hitler, their discussions of death and the discovery of the purpose of Dylar and the secrets it reveals. If DeLillo had condensed this novel to about half it's length, I think I would've have given this book 5 stars. The book ends in an entirely different place than where it began which I thought was pretty unnecessary. I did like it though. I tried not to but I couldn't help it. His observations on the fear of death as being a life force was too wise to ignore. I just hope no one has to read this for a class.
Rating:
Summary: Somber satire
Review: In White Noise, DeLillo provides insight into the idiosyncracies of the American experience, both capturing and caricaturing its essence, by way of somber satire. Like Pynchon's "V"., the main characters in "White Noise" are intentionally bland and invariant, save for the emigre professors, who are quite memorable, in order to show how commercial consumerism has affected our nation and its citizens. Some complain that there is no "story" in "White Noise," but sometimes it takes less to show more. If DeLillo had turned this novel into a screenplay-de jour, he would be undermining the book's theme. If the reader can suspend expectations of a typical plot or storyline, "White Noise" will prove to be deliciously disturbing.
Rating:
Summary: White Noise -- Review by a psychiatrist
Review: Jack Gladney is a college professor in the middle of a mid life crisis. He has no idea of who he is. He hides his emptiness behind thick, dark framed glasses, a scholarly university instructors' robe, and mastery of his academic interest of choice, "Hitler studies". He sees death everywhere he looks and attempts to thwart its inevitability in obsessive compulsive ways. He hoards old, worthless, sentimental objects. He memorizes the most minute trivial facts about Hitler. He to strives for order, neatness, and predictability in all facets of his life. The quest for order permeates every facet of his life, down to which kind of cereal he buys. His family life is in shambles. His wife and children co-habitate the same home, yet there is little real contact between any of them. The family TV is the central point in the home and serves as a buffer to reality. To the Gladney family,"Bad things", happen on TV, to people in California, not in their little community. When an industrial accident brings Jack face to face with real danger, Jack is forced to examine his own magical thinking. He is forced to take an inventory of what is truly important to him. He comes to the inevitable crossroads where he must decide if he will change or if he will not. The novel is very humorous is a dark, satirical way. Jack is a representation of the American consumer more than he is a "real" charachter. The book does not end in "neat little package". Rather, it ends with a sense of hopeful uncertainty. If you are looking for a Tom Clancy type novel with well defined charachters in a well defined plot that comes to a well defined end, take a pass on his novel. If you are interested in a darkly humorous examination of American culture which can be simultaneously funny, yet also tragic and disturbing, this is your book. I very highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant Brilliant Brilliant!
Review: Don DeLillo's WHITE NOISE is an amazing feat of fiction. On every page there is something either beautiful, brilliantly observant, poetically written or laugh-out-loud funny. On many occasions the reader gets the extra treat: it's all of these rolled into one. Possibly the most observant book on the postmodern suburban condition, WHITE NOISE follows a colleg professor and his ultra-modern family through the trials and tribulations of rural life and an "airborn toxic event"-- a giant black cloud of billowing toxins that is itself a media storm. DeLillo's observations on the nature of popular culture, academia, love, death and pollution are always dead-on and amazing. That a book full of so many big ideas could also be as readible and enjoyable as this one is amazing. That a male post-modernist is this capable of such large amounts of human feeling, compassion and sympathy (unlike, say, Amis, Wallace, Ellis etc.) while maintaining an observant and ironic detatchment would seem almost impossible. That DeLillo could pull off the outrageous tonal shift from social satire to a depressing meditation on death and love is truly remarkable. Read this amazing book. NOW!
Rating: 
Summary: APT TITLE
Review: It's been just a few days since I slogged through WN and can only remember a few cute lines, clever kids, academia caricatures and a big, black toxic cloud. Was there more to it?
Rating:
Summary: Poetry 9 Action 1
Review: Imagery defeated action in this book by the score of 9 to 1. 90% of the book is like a museum exhibit with dialog. Nothing happens. Vivid imagery happens thanks to the narrator and somewhat humorous commentary happens thanks to the strange and socratic children and acquiantances, but you have to wait until the final 10% for action. It's curious because the physical action is rather compelling and very real. I don't know, 4 stars may not be enough, because I liked reading it.
Rating:
Summary: What I Thought of White Noise
Review: Boring and depressing for no apparent reason. Reading it felt like doing psychotherapy.
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