WHITE NOISE

Jack Gladney teachers Hitler studies at a liberal arts college in Middle America where his colleagues include New York expatriates who want to immerse themselves in "American magic and dread." Jack and his fourth wife, Babette, bound by their love, fear of death, and four ultramodern offspring, navigate the usual rocky passages of family life to the background babble of brand-name consumerism.
Then a lethal black chemical cloud floats over theif lives, an "airborne toxic event" unleashed by an industrail accident. The menacing cloud is a more urgent and visible version of the "white noise" engulfing the Gladney family — radio transmisisons, sirens, microwaves, ultrasonic appliances, and TV murmurings — pulsing with life, yet heralding the danger of death.