"War is the form nostalgia takes when men have nothing good to say about their country."
This quote alone proves White Noise is a great book. This was book two on my goal of finishing all of the Penguin Great Books of the Twentieth Century. It truly deserves the title of "Great Book". DeLillo's commentary on modern life, technology, death, pollution, Hitler, and Elvis are inspired. This book is broken into three sections: "Waves and Radiation", "Airborne Toxic Event", and "Dylarama". They speak to technology and society, pollution and disaster, and death in that order. DeLillo's grasp of the modern world is no keen that the change he puts the protagonist, Jack, through seems a once natural and completely insane. Murray was by far my favorite character with Henreich and Denise fighting for second. Even as minor characters they add a unique insight into how we all work. This is a book that will teach you thing you already though you knew but will now understand them in a new light. What is the difference between killers and diers? Why does the world need nuns? Are we the sum total of our data? A post-modern book in the greatest sense. Sartre, Nietzsche, and Schopenhauer all laid the ground work but DeLillo makes it real. A must read to understand yourself and this world.