I just finished reading Don DeLillo's White Noise this morning. I'm not entirely sure what I thought of it, so perhaps I'm not in the best position to blog about it, but I'm going to anyway. It was a pretty quick read, and I found J.A.K. Gladney's children quite endearing -- particularly Denise and Heinrich, who were both infinitely more mature than their parents -- but I didn't sympathize much with any of the adult characters. I just didn't care about Jack or Babette's mortality and wished they'd stop whining.
However, there were a few lines that struck a chord with me; in particular, this line of Jack's in Ch. 33, addressed to his father-in-law:
"Routine things can be deadly, Vern, carried to extremes. I have a friend who says that's why people take vacations. Not to relax or find excitement or see new places. To escape the death that exists in routine things."
Thank goodness for my trip to Barcelona next week! I can't wait to escape my mundane routine for a few days and revitalize myself.
I found an interesting article here on DeLillo's annotations on the opening page of the book. His appreciation of the tactility and spacial awareness that goes into creating his books appeals to me, as well as his sense of rhythm in the text.
No comments:
Post a Comment