Jack Gladney, professor of Hitler studies, lives in a college town with his blended family until an airborne toxic event changes everything. DeLillo's prose is cool and funny, finding in supermarkets and advertisements the white noise of American consciousness. The fear of death permeates everything; the conversations are satirical and oddly tender. The novel won the National Book Award and became a cultural touchstone. We live in an atmosphere of fear, but the fear is soothed by products. The toxic cloud drifts. The family survives. The white noise continues.