A brilliant satire of mass culture and the 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 there 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.
- ISBN10 0140283307
- ISBN13 9780140283303
- Publish Date 27 February 2002 (first published 31 January 1985)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 22 October 2004
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Penguin Books Ltd
- Format Paperback
- Pages 310
- Language English