I’ve just finished reading Ian Leslie’s book, John and Paul: A Love Story in Songs. And yes, I’m ready to give it the title of Best Music Book of the Year as early as May.

The book is about John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s extremely fruitful (albeit often painful) relationship as friends and co-creators throughout the 1960s, and it follows them through to Lennon’s untimely death in December 1980. As the title suggests, Leslie structures the story around 43 songs written by Lennon and McCartney over that period, interweaving musical and biographical/psychological exploration as deftly as one could hope.

But don’t think of this as a music book. That would be selling it substantially short. This is one of the best books ever written about partnerships, broadly construed–professional, romantic, creative, or otherwise. Leslie brings to life a profoundly human story that has something to offer everyone who has ever cared about another person deeply. It is heartfelt, engrossing, and reflective.

In its thorough and tender examination of the way two people can come to depend on each other, its only peers seem to be novels–Sula by Toni Morrison comes to mind, as do A Separate Peace by John Knowles and On the Road by Jack Kerouac. There’s also a decent case to be made for tossing Elena Ferrante’s book My Brilliant Friend into this mix. These are stories that, like Leslie’s book, celebrate the joys of friendship yet deal directly with its darker undercurrents: jealousy, resentment, confusion.

What the book seems to get right above all else is the delicate balancing act that any good partnership is. We want partners we admire, but we want to be admired in return. We want partners that bring out the best in us, but we also want to feel that we bring out something special in them, too.

The pillars of good partnerships–love, trust, respect, etc.–all involve a bit of mutual risk taking. One partner must be willing to take a chance, and the other must be willing to reciprocate. This alternating series of leaps of faith can be difficult to coordinate and easy to disrupt. Lennon and McCartney show us the highs and lows of this dance, and the power of their partnership to produce beautiful art (and lives) ratchets up the intensity at every turn.

This book is a trip worth taking, a journey inward and outward into the lives of two of the great creative geniuses of the last century. There are too many Beatles books already, sure, but this one shouldn’t be discounted for that reason. A more perfect world probably includes 4-5 books just examining this partnership through different lenses; but even in a world where there are 15 excellent books on this topic, it’s hard to imagine Leslie’s book not being essential.

Highly recommended for music fans, psychology fans, or anyone who has ever tried to love someone and be loved in return.

Rating: 9/10