The best literary criticism I've ever read was about Lord Of The Rings. The superb (now dead) mountaineers Dougal Haston and mancunian Don Whillans were climbing one of the unclimbed ridges on Mt Denali, when they were hit by a severe storm, and they had to spend a week in a snowhole. With nothing to do but sit and wait, Haston got his copy of LOTR out of his rucksack and read some of it. Whillans asked him what he was reading so Dougal told him, and asked him if he wanted to borrow it, as he'd already read it. After a couple of hours, Whillans threw the book at Haston with a cry of "Fookin' fairies!" and stared at the snow for the rest of the week.
Cheers
Ray