Bruit de fond (nouvelle édition) (1984)

"No sense of the irony of human experience, that we are the highest form of life on earth, and yet ineffably sad because we know what no other animal know, that we must die."

The novel features a bizarre cast of characters from a minor American university town, and centres around Jack Gladney, the Chair of Hitler studies, who lives with his fourth wife and a brood of children from their various marriages.

The first and largest section of this book features an accident at the nearby railroad sidings which results in a toxic cloud floating over the town, but in truth I'm not totally convinced that this incident isn't little more than an sideshow as although it isn't out of place it also doesn't add too much either. In truth there isn't a plot as such. But rather a series of day to day conversations, many of which don't lead anywhere in particular, as the author tries to paint a picture of modern society as he sees it. This lack of plot makes it a difficult read, you have to really concentrate to get the most out of it, one conversation could be equally as important as the next.

Some of the themes that this novel explores are consumerism/ materialism and globalisation (the 'White Noise' of the title refers to the constant adverts and misinformation that we are bombarded with virtually every day that we barely notice it). But the most over-riding theme is our over-reliance on science to solve our everyday problems usually in the form of anti-depressants or tranquilizers. Both Jack and his wife Babette fear death but rather than look at the root causes of their fear they turn to an experimental drug, Dylar, to salve their anxiety.

"The greater the scientific advance, the more primitive the fear."

Given that death features fairly prominently in this novel I found myself reading numerous passages if not laughing out loud at least with a smile on my face, some of the conversations were so ridiculous that they are comical. However, it also felt rather self-indulgent and as I said earlier on in this review it also requires a certain amount of effort, its for that reason that I've marked it down. ( )

Underbart skriven roman med ett språk som bara flyter fram. Ironi och samhällskritik på en nivå som när boken kom måste ha varit häpnadsväckande. Misstron mot elektronisk utrustning är slående boken igenom. Rolig och underhållande läsning. ( )

What a novel this would be to discuss in a class. The academic satire, the consumerism, the need for/expectation of a drug to fix things, the airborne toxic event. News, TV, weather reports. It's all very funny but also so frustratingly true. And so much of this is still true, though somehow this book feels innocent (naive might be a better word). Maybe because Jack Gladney is so convinced the airborne toxic event won't affect his town/neighborhood/family because they are the kind of people that "aren't" affected by such things. (Also, California is for disasters.) I'm not sure there are still largely white upper-class Americans that think that way. I may be completely wrong though. ( )

i read a different edition

Boring and pretentious ( )