White Noise

I am traveling a lot these days which means that I have a lot of time to read on planes and in hotels, but not much time to write up my thoughts. So I am moving to a simpler format. 

White Noise  by Don DeLillo is a post-modern exploration of American cultural underpinnings: What is around us, what drives us, how do we handle the sounds, scents and visuals that intrude into our space and most important, how do we handle death and our fear of it.

Non-Spoiler Summary:  The story follows a patchwork family: Jack, Babette and their kids from multiple marriages including six year old Wilder who is cognitively impaired. Jack is the department chair at a private liberal arts college and runs the country's most successful Hitler studies program. He has created a persona for himself by wearing dark glasses and copping an attitude when he teaches. At home, he is an average guy and a congenial father and husband. Babette teaches, volunteers and cares for the family. She has a big secret that she is hiding (and, it turns out, other bigger secrets, too). Everyone knows this, but no one can pry them loose from her.

Jack and Babette are both crazy-fearful of death - each afraid to die, but more afraid of being the last one alive. The plot explores the fear of death theme in a myriad ways including Jack and Babbette's denial, angst and rash decisions. When an "airborne toxic event" occurs within view of the family home, Jack and Babette deny the toxic event's danger saying that these sorts of things happen only to the under-privileged - which they are not - and so there is nothing to worry about. (Their children, meanwhile, keep up with radio reports and pack up the car.)

Jack becomes good friends with Murray, a visiting professor of cultural studies, who formally observes, writes notes and then deconstructs everything around him: children playing, people watching TV, a carton of broken eggs on a supermarket aisle floor, and, yes, the way people react to death. It is Murray, in an oracle's role, who provides most of the book's meta-insights.

Once beyond the airborne toxic event, Jack's obsession with death reaches over-the-top proportions and the plot comes along for the ride. I never-ever would have guessed the plot turns. I'm not sure that I care for them, either. Stepping back from the book, it's almost cartoon-ish in nature. Up close, I found it annoying, but truthfully, it works in this post-modern, meta-novel.

Style:  DeLillo shows more interest in his musings and meta-dialogs than in the plot. White Noise's matter-of-fact style reminds me of Camus: there is little emotional content, scant descriptions of people or scenery and no sub-plots to confuse the issue. DeLillo surfaces a few times in the middle of a paragraph to inform the reader that in keeping with post-modern traditions he will fore-go creating a new plot angle or that he will not bother to describe the vivid hues of a fabulous sunset. This all has the effect of keeping the reader at arm's distance from the story and makes for a  reading experience more akin to reading a newspaper: one watches characters rather than empathizing with them as they confront huge challenges. Did I mention that it is a parody of modern culture? Very clever, though it gets old.

Reading Experience: I truly enjoyed the first 200 pages or so. I became annoyed with the characters and plot thereafter. But in the end, I'm glad to have read it - and have enjoyed mulling it over. This is a good book for group exploration - which mean a class because very few book clubs are going to take this one on.