Wednesday, May 12, 2010

White Noise by Don DeLillo

How to start my several weeks overdue review of Don DeLillo's 1985 National Book Award Winner?  I found myself marking pages throughout the book to cycle back and re-read DeLillo's amazing prose.  His look at an educated and somewhat desperate middle class family was rich and scarily true to our own times. 

Even though it was written in the 1980s, DeLillo's characters operate in a world driven by catch phrases, hollow status and the warm glow of the television.  Even the "chemical event" which drives much of the novel would not be out of place on any current news channel.

Following a professor at a small liberal arts college and his almost cliched mixed family as their lives slowly but inevitably unravel, DeLillo digs away at the initial image of a well functioning existence.  Jack and Babette and their mixed brood of children assembled from various marriages are buffeted on all fronts by mass media culture, fear-mongering, and their own need for each other.  I feel like I can't even begin to describe the way DeLillo has encapsulated the bubble of middle class (we're trapped in our own education and need for security).

I'm sure that I could go on for many pages about the love I have for this book and how well crafted it is.  But I won't bore anyone.  :) I just recommend that you go read it.

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