White Noise - Don Delillo (2 of 5 Soup Cans)

Has anyone else read this book? Of all the crazy books I've read, this one probably takes the toxic cake. This commentary on postmodernism was assigned reading for my environmental literature course last semester. The novel follows the quirky lives of a man, his wife and their four children. A good portion of the narrative takes place in front of the television. When they're not drooling in front of the tube, they are teaching Hitler studies courses at the local university, attending bible studies classes, taking pills to combat the fear of death, flying around the world, riding tricycles down freeways, running from airborne toxic events and shopping at grocery stores. Their existence is busy, but shallow and fragile.

For the first fifty pages I remember being quite taken with the writing style. It is blunt and eccentric, quite refreshing from dense writing of The Plague. The discussions of the characters are similar to those you might hear on Seinfeld, the "show about nothing." However, just like Seinfeld, you can only take so much of it. About halfway through the book I was ready to move on. The novel bounces around so quickly that it is sometimes difficult to follow. The characters are so intentionally shallow that I found a difficult time actually caring what happened to them.

I guess the real kicker is that Delillo wrote this criticism of consumerism way back in 1985, prior to our entering the Paris Hilton era. Imagine the firepower he would have writing this book today...

Granted, this novel did win the National Book Award in 1985. But like most books that win awards such as these, they have to be somewhat off the beaten track. Personally, I wasn't impressed, but you might be. Happy reading.