White Noise.

DELILLO, Don.

$1,200.00

Item Number: 138126

New York: The Viking Press, 1985.

First edition of the author’s National Book Award-winning novel. Octavo, original half cloth. Presentation copy, boldly inscribed by the author on the title page, “To Joe Don DeLillo.” Fine in a fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Neil Stuart. A very sharp example.

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 was awarded the National Book Award. It is the basis for the 2022 film directed by Noah Baumbach starring Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, Raffey Cassidy, André Benjamin, Alessandro Nivola, Jodie Turner-Smith, and Don Cheadle.