Finished: White Noise (DeLillo). A very "out there" book written in the early 80's and having enough oddity to get itself on Time's Top 100 books. It's been on my list to read, and I'm glad I did, but it wasn't exactly my thing. I mean, again, the writing was good....kind of almost a stream of conscious story of the main character's preoccupation with the fear of death. Even the dialogues between the characters sometimes just seem like random stream of consciousness, though, they seem so real at the same time. I can so see human beings, especially teenage siblings, holding some of the random conversations that take place in the book. White Noise is the story of a professor of Hitler Studies at a small college in the Midwest, Jack Gladney. He's on his fourth wife, Babette. Between them they live with four of their children from previous marriages, none of whom are full brothers and sisters. They're a quirky, outspoken family with normal worries, day to day routines, etc. They have only one television between them, but they watch it enough for the commercials and disaster news shows to make great impacts, as is their intent. Jack and Babette both have almost an irrational fear of death. They keep telling each other that they want to die before the other one so as not to be left alone. Babette has such a fear, in fact, that she goes off and enters a clandestine drug trial for Dylar, a drug that is supposed to reduce your fear of death. Unfortunately, the man running the trial is kicked out of the company, but he keeps Babette's trial going on the sly in exchange for sex. Doubly unfortunately, the drug doesn't work. Babette still has the irrational fears and she also has lots of memory loss of day to day things. One day a train with toxic chemicals derails near their town and a huge black cloud goes up in the sky....an "airborne toxic event". The families of the town, including Jack and Babette's family, are evacuated for nine days. The fears and wonders of the event are seen through all their eyes. Jack, in getting out of the evacuating car to get gas, fears he's become exposed to the toxins, and sure enough, traces of them appear in his blood work later. Therefore, he gets an even more fixed fear of death. His good friend and colleague at the college, Murray Siskind takes long walks with him and they discuss all manner of philosophical ideas about life and death. Murray says that some people conquer their fear of death by killing others. Why else would mass murderers do what they do? (Um, maybe because they're crazy??) Anyway, when Jack finds out about Babette's sex for drugs escapades, his first reaction is to get some of the drug for himself. However, Babette refuses to tell him the name of the supplier...only that it's all over since the drug didn't work. Then, after Murray's theory about killing, Jack decides he will seek out the drug supplier and kill him. He works himself up to the task, finds out rather conveniently who the guy is and what seedy hotel he's staying at, goes there, shoots him, puts the gun in his hand to make it look like he shot himself, but then the guy shoots Jack in the wrist before succumbing to a drug induced stupor. He's been feeding himself the Dylar non-stop and is an addict of it himself. Having been shot, Jack realizes what he's done and takes the man and himself to a clinic for help. They all assume the man shot himself and Jack, since that's what Jack tells them. Jack goes home to watch his sleeping children. The next vivid scene involves the youngest of the children, 2 or 3 year old Wilder, driving his little plastic tricycle (I picture a Big Wheel), across three lanes of the busy interstate, up onto the median, and across three more lanes before he rolls down a hill into a puddle and cries for his mom. Having survived the ordeal, I guess we're supposed to get the point that death can really happen to anyone at any time? I don't know. I know I held my breath while reading that part! So, Jack, Babette and Wilder spend the ending scene of the book going to stop on the highway overpass with half the rest of the town to look at the spectacular sunset...a phenomenon that has only been occurring since the airborne toxic event. It makes them wonder what has been left behind in the air particles, but oh well, the sunsets are spectacular. That's the end. Kind of a statement on human nature, fear, blended families, government reactions to disasters, and commercialism all in one. I'm not sure I would have put it on the top 100 list of books, but it was okay to read something that wasn't back in the 18th century! :-)