Don DeLillo's "break out book" White Noise is interesting if nothing else. Every character proposes their own weird, "post-modern" theory. From society, to psychology, to the nature of knowledge. Or they exhibit some behavior which is rather exaggerated from the norm, but based on some odd thing which lots of people do.
I don't really like the main character, which is to say, every character as the story is a large internal debate from the perspective of Jack Gladney. Therefore every character sounds like Jack Gladney. Thus, it was difficult for me to keep reading. It did not "keep me up at night" as many reviewers claim, but rather made me put it down over and over and over again. Yet even as it did so, it succeeded in enticing me finish it. And I am glad I did. It was "A Little Annoying, but Interesting".
The meat of the book are the conversations between different characters. An early one between Jack and his son Heinrich is very interesting, Heinrich essentially taking the side that you can't really know anything. However, in the end he makes an assumption on the same par (or higher) than the ones his father had been making: anything an animal does is automatically more natural than what humans do. Supermarkets are really big and important to Jack, his family is really big, extended and complicated due to marriage, divorce, re-marriage, procreation, and divorce again.
The main issue dealt with in the book was Death, and the fear of it. But in the end, it doesn't spur a lot of thought in me, though it obviously wanted to. I am not reminded of it, or a theory in it, ever. But it has been interesting trying to decide whither or not one or another person (like my Mom, or Sister, or crazy neighbor) would like the book. I am very curious to know how correct each of my predictions are.
Post-Modern is a hard term to define, but this book is a pretty good illustration of what it is: everything, and at the same time, nothing at all, and usually a little annoying.
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