Benjamin is well known for his apprehensions of modernity, his philosophical inquiries into the states of mind and being brought about by capitalist modernity. In these stories those threads are abstracted, woven into lush, vivid narratives that shine on their own.

I enjoyed this collection, but it is kind of hard to review or even really categorize for readers. If I were to sum it up, this feels like a collection of thoughts explored in different ways and to different degrees rather than a collection of complete short stories. Knowing the author, that wasn't really a surprise for me, but others looking for a more traditional/commercial collection will probably find this one a little tough. Despite that, I enjoyed engaging with the ideas and found it a good thing to pick up in between some of my other reads. I won't really pick a 'favorite' piece this time because it just isn't that type of collection. If you are looking for something to make you think a bit, check this one out!

While I enjoyed my time with this collection of Benjamin's fiction, I don't think I'd be able to recommend it. At least not to the causal reader. Many of these pieces feel like they're not meant for public consumption, but are rather more like the doodles of one of the great intellectual figures of the early 20th century. From that perspective, this is a fascinating read. For those who are familiar with the work of Walter Benjamin and would enjoy a peak into the seldom-seen part of his creative spirit, I think there's a lot to be enjoyed. Otherwise, these stores can feel repetitive, incomplete, infantile, or else (and maybe worst of all) uninteresting.

Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for the digital advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This collection is a miscellany that is hard to characterize—anecdotes, vignettes, diary fragments, records of dreams, outlines of novels, book reviews, and puzzles. Rarely more than three pages, each chapter is selected from the later volumes of Benjamin's collected writings, showing the wide range of his free-lance commissions and the small tidbits he submitted to different newspapers and radio programs. In isolation, the chapters are often inscrutable and hard to appreciate, but there is a unifying logic to the collection as a whole. Whether jotting down dreams or writing about his travels around southern Europe or compiling riddles, Benjamin was constantly making experiments with different expressions of 20th-century German romanticism: the liberated spirit mystically plumbing the unconscious to cultivate the imagination, the adventurous rebel exploring the fantastic edges of civilization, the carefree adult returning to the innocence and spontaneity of childhood play.

I found many of the stories to be uninteresting, but "The Cactus Hedge" stands out as particularly provocative and enigmatic. It tells the tale of an aloof Irishman who settles in Ibiza and becomes well-known for his ability to tie knots and for his collection of African masks, which he claims magically came into possession but in fact were his own forgeries. The story forms a subtle critique of colonialism and the western fetishization and commercialization of prehistorical heritage. On the whole, I was most drawn to Benjamin's book reviews, which read more as manifestos of his philosophy and commitment to Romanticism. In a review of Alois Jalkotzy, Benjamin pushes back against the modernist belief that children's folktales, with their macabre stories of cannibalism and medieval castles and monarchies, are antithetical to contemporary sensibilities. He argues that reforming fairytales for a more modern context only destroys their genuineness and originality. And throughout the collection, whether lambasting works on art history or uninspiring travelogues, Benjamin opines on the modern degradation of art and story-telling, searching for a new spiritual and literary revival.