Steven Godin's Reviews > White Noise

Brilliant! A top-notch social satire about the fear of death and how it effects ones life - a life being consumed by the modern world, becoming paranoid about everything we hear and are told through radio/TV. And the airborne toxic event that's thrown into the mix only adds to the darkly comical and paranoid behaviour of the Gladney family involved. And this is where the heart of the story lies - a family going through a crisis, that leads to some pretty over-the-top behaviour, as during their college town exodus Jack is momentarily exposed to the noxious air - an exposure which would alter his life expectancy. The chemical cloud may disperse, but the stranglehold fear of death -the white noise - goes marching on and paralyzes Jack and wife Babette both. The dialogue here is damn right superb! - the best I've come across in a DeLillo novel probably. The family moments - like the squabbling between parents and siblings it is at times just hilarious, and had me thinking of an abundance of American sitcoms. In a way, once entering the second half of the book, it's like DeLillo is throwing TV - channel-surfing - right at you through a book. From the news, to sci-fi, to the movie channel, to a sitcom. On a more serious level, despite it being for the most part a humorous read, DeLillo always sticks close to basic human instincts - like the evocation of loneliness before death shown by Jack & Babette which really was quite touching. Easily one of the best American novels of the 80s.