01/03/2006 11:44 PM
Posted by VeggieSteph

White Noise by Don Delillo

White Noise is considered a contemporary literature classic. I had no idea that it was until I looked it up on the Internet to get some background on the book. You see, I had to almost pry it from the fingers of my friend InkerX in his “I’m moving so I want to get rid of all of this riff-raff” free-for-all, so I knew it was going to be a good and quirky book, but I had no idea it would be so very quirky. It is definitely postmodern, as it is very preoccupied with the constant rumblings of advertisements and pop culture. Delillo’s use of language and characters ends up fulfilling the title of his novel. The story, the people, and words all end up being a buzzing in the background of your mind while you read.


White Noise deals with Jack Gladney, a professor of Hitler studies in a small liberal arts college. He and his fourth wife, Babette, have a family made up of four Buffy-esque kids (or Buffy and her friends if they were just a bit more postmodern and less snarky) living in their little American suburb, constantly surrounded by pop culture, consumerism, and advertising. They recite quips, talk in a peppery, snappy dialogue, and go on with normal life until an “airborne toxic event” seals the patriarch’s fate. He and his wife have been obsessed with death (as have their kids), and now his fate is sealed. He comes to realize what we all know – he will die, and there is no getting away from it.

Death is a major force in the novel. It creeps in at the beginning, where Gladney says in a Hitler lecture, “All plots end in death.” His wife Babette is terrified of death, and clings to the hope that a new, untested pharmaceutical will help her conquer her fear. Her use of this drug ends up driving her husband to face death in a way he didn’t expect. Death also brings new life and animation into Gladney’s oldest son Heinrich. During the toxic event evacuation, Heinrich spouts fountains of knowledge to the listening neighbors, showing a truly animated side his father had never seen before.

White Noise is a very appropriate title for this book. The language DeLillo uses creates a background of constant humming, much like the background noise of our overtly technological, heavy machinery, consumerist world. His characters hum, and he has advertisements and television shows interrupt the narrative. His novel is white noise, just like the point he is trying to make – white noise makes up our lives, and as his characters speculate, maybe that is all that life and death is made up of – white noise.

I didn’t care for this book while I was reading it. I kept getting distracted, annoyed by the words and interruptions DeLillo uses. His characters were not very endearing; in fact, they irritated me. The wife was too silly, the kids too smart-mouthed and full of hip, snappy comments. No one had real conversations. After thinking about it, mulling over it, I can see the book for what it is – a very effective narrative making a point about our consumerist, two-dimensional culture. Funny thing is, I had another book of Delillo’s on my might-read list (The Body Artist), and I didn’t realize it until I was looking him up. I have a hard time digesting works like these – much like people have a hard time understanding what makes a piece of art by Pollock so beautiful. I can respect it for what it is, but I probably won’t read any more of his books unless they sound terribly interesting, or if I can pry them out of InkerX’s fingers. Then it might be worth it.