White Noise follows Jack Gladney, a professor of ‘Hitler Studies’ in a tech saturated American suburb. Jack, his wife Babette, and their chaotic blended family live under a constant drone of media, consumerism, and a shared, paralyzing fear of mortality. The family’s eccentric domestic life is dominated by constant supermarket trips, brand names, and television static.
A railway accident then unleashes a massive chemical cloud known as the ‘Airborne Toxic Event’ over their town. During a chaotic evacuation, Jack is exposed to the chemical, handing him a vague but definite medical death sentence. Consumed by his fear of dying, Jack discovers Babette has been secretly trading sexual favours to a rogue researcher in exchange for ‘Dylar’, an experimental drug designed to chemically eliminate the fear of death. Driven to madness and paranoia, Jack attempts to murder the researcher to conquer his own mortality, only to end up saving the man’s life instead.
DeLillo has written the postmodern condition in fiction here. It’s a world where genuine experience between humans has been replaced by signs, symbols, and simulations. Through concepts like ‘The Most Photographed Barn in America’, DeLillo shows that modern people no longer experience things directly. Their experience is of the media representation of things.
The author (Don DeLillo – Wikipedia) cleverly weaves commercial slogans (‘Toyota Celica’, ‘MasterCard’), and media fragments into the dialogue. The book feels noisy such that the characters don’t talk to each other so much as broadcast at each other. First published in 1985 we can see how prescient DeLillo was in writing White Noise. Written long before the advent of smartphones, social media, or modern climate emergency, this book has been highly prophetic. It is still worth reading.
Check if White Noise by Don DeLillo is in stock at your local library by consulting the online catalogue here Home | South Lanarkshire Libraries (sllclibrary.co.uk)
384 pages in Picador
First published 1985
ISBN-13 : 978-1529077261
Don DeLillo