I cannot quote this whole article, so I will summarize: Ed Park reviews Martin Millar’s Suzy, Led Zeppelin and Me (which I have not read) and John Darnielle’s Master of Reality (which I thought was pretty great) — and he compares passages from both to my absolute favorite passage from EM Forster’s Howards End, about Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.

Now comes the wonderful movement: first of all the goblins, and then a trio of elephants dancing… . [L]ook out for the part where you think you havedone with the goblins and they come back,’ breathed Helen, as the music started with a goblin walking quietly over the universe, from end to end. Others followed him. They were not aggressive creatures; it was that that made them so terrible to Helen. They merely observed in passing that there was no such thing as splendour or heroism in the world. After the interlude of elephants dancing, they returned and made the observation a second time. Helen could not contradict them, for once, at all events, she had felt the same, and had seen the reliable walls of youth collapse. Panic and emptiness! Panic and emptiness! The goblins were right.

In short: quite possibly one of the best book reviews (and not just because I’m highly biased towards the subject matter) that I’ve read in quite some time. Perhaps it’s just me, but the prose therein is positively weep-worthy.