A darn good quote on "Second Pass"

For the four or five readers of this blog that don't already know about Second Pass, check it out. It's a wonderful book-lovers site managed by John Williams, formerly of Harper-Collins and other editorial houses and blogger here.

On Second Pass, in a section called "The Shelf" is a recommendation for The Listener, by Allen Wheelis. I simply have to read it, based on this searingly astute quote.

“What we deny is not death but the awareness that, before we die, nothing is going to happen. That big vague thing, that redemptive fulfillment, is an illusion, a beckoning bribe to keep us loyal. A symphony has a climax, a poem builds to a burst of meaning, but we are unfinished business. No coming together of strands. The game is called because of darkness.”