White Noise
Don DeLillo (1985)
“The most American novel ever written — a family drowning in supermarkets, television static, and the certainty that they will die.”
Short Summary
Jack Gladney, chairman of Hitler Studies at a small Midwestern college, lives with his fourth wife Babette and their blended family in a comfortable consumer fog. When a toxic chemical spill — the 'Airborne Toxic Event' — forces an evacuation, Jack and Babette's shared, suppressed terror of death surfaces into the open. Jack discovers Babette has been secretly taking an experimental drug called Dylar, which is supposed to eliminate the fear of death, in exchange for sex with its developer. Jack tracks down the man and shoots him, then helps him to a hospital run by atheist nuns. Nothing is resolved. The white noise continues.
Detailed Summary
Jack Gladney is a college professor who invented Hitler Studies and built an academic career around a man whose language he cannot speak. He lives in Blacksmith, a small college town, with his wife Babette and four children from various prior marriages: Heinrich, Steffie, Denise, and Wilder. His col...