Fear of death is the dominant theme that drives the novel’s plot and informs many of its characters’ motivations. It is the chief antagonist Jack and Babette struggle to overcome. This fear also frames other major themes and plots. It is the connective tissue that brings together the disparate strands of cultural references, analytical observations, and dry sarcasm that comprise the book. For example, Jack’s fixation on Hitler, a historical figure whom Murray describes as “larger than death” (274), is an effort to transcend death itself. It is the same drive that brought massive crowds to Hitler’s rallies in an attempt to shield themselves from death. But in the end, Hitler cannot save Jack.

Neither can consumerism nor his wife Babette, despite the comforts they provide Jack during the first third of the novel. This is before he learns of his exposure to Nyodene D. After, he says, “Death has entered” (136). And while this makes death less abstract, it also renders it more impersonal. Jack says, “It makes you feel like a stranger in your own dying” (137). Here, death is portrayed as cold arithmetic, “the sum total of your data” (136).