Oh! The Noise!

It's hard to read a book like L.P. Hartley's "The Go-Between."  There's far too much noise in my life.  Too much distraction from the quiet space within that all of us need in order to read such a devastating book.  Besides the fact that I'm on the subway.  And the damn station announcements, largely unnecessary, every two minutes.  The book is a coming-of-age story, as Kathleen Kirk says on her wonderful blog, Wait!  I have a blog?  It is a great book and I know why Francine Prose put it on her list of books.  It is another room that art has.  But it is not television.  There is nothing in it demanding to be paid attention too unless you can be very quiet inside.  I doubt I can be that quiet.  I'm off to read Patricia Highsmith's Tales of Natural and Unnatural Catastrophes now.  Prose mentions in passing that she spent a summer reading all of Highsmith's books, but she didn't put her on the list that she created.  I think Prose would admit that Highsmith too occupies one of the rooms of art.  What are you reading?