I'm certain I haven't read any Walter Benjamin since college, although I always recall "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" quite fondly. This is a series of very short descriptions of his memories of childhood. Despite being very narrow in focus -- he's a young child so many of the remembered incidents are specific to his own home and his family, they do come together to give you a very ephemeral sense of life in Berlin at this time. This fascinated me a lot -- it's as if you catch glimpses of Berlin much like a person might remember only brief impressions of a place he or she experienced as a small child. He's pretty upfront about the fact that his family's Berlin life was more comfortable than most, too. Benjamin wrote this series when he was living outside of Germany in the late 30s, unable to return because of his Jewish background. A few years later, he was trying to get to the US, and killed himself when his traveling party was stopped at the French border. The details are a little murky, but it would seem the premise was that he didn't want to risk deportation to Germany. This is the first complete English collection of Berlin Childhood and it also includes a few pieces that were original to the manuscript, but edited out by Benjamin before publication. It's not in the text, and it's quite possible I'm projecting it myself, but I believe this book does have the feel of something written about a very beloved time and place, with an added urgency and confusion about the current state of things. "You can't go home again" is a common enough theme, but you feel the special keenness of that in this book.

Grade: B+
Recommended: Benjamin translated Proust for German publication, and you definitely get the idea that Berlin Childhood owes a lot to Remembrance of Things Past (although not in length). The episodes are extremely philosophical and contemplative, they aren't the "funny things I did as a kid" type. This would probably be enjoyed by people who like Proust and/or Rilke, or have a specific interest in German life during this period. Oh, it's probably also much more satisfying to read if you have the leisure to sit back and allow time for your own musings on the topics raised, I get the feeling it would be a particularly frustrating book to rush through.