White Noise

Reading Don Dellilo's White Noise on the thirtieth anniversary of the Chernobyl accident, I think Delillo had a good sense of the world to come.  Ecological and apocalyptic disasters are a primary trope of postmodern literature, but given the proximity of the release of this work with the Ukrainian event it seems particularly relevant.  This novel basically takes the usual postmodern understanding of the loss of our existential connection to life and its replacement with late capitalist consumer culture, and works it into a story.  A little too explicitly - to the point where Delillo essentially shouts out "this is a commentary on postmodern culture."  Unfortunately, as a literary narrative it is pretty awful, the dialogue presenting something that is nowhere near realistic, and is just bland inhuman characters asking each inane question in response to every statement. "Why?" "Why?"  Now, I'll assume this is intentional to portray the unfeeling disconnect between the characters and their life and the world around them.  But it makes for terrible writing, and terrible storytelling.  This was disappointing, as this is supposed to be a high-mark of postmodern commentary, a goal-point for all subsequent authors to strive to hit.  But I don't think there is anything here that Douglas Coupland or David Foster Wallace hasn't done better, and with more aesthetic effect. He may have paved the way for the rest, and this work seems to have had a lasting influence.  But, I hope future encounters with his work, including the latest, will be more readable