A review by quintusmarcus
Microscripts by Susan Bernofsky, Robert Walser, Walter Benjamin

2.0

The Microscripts are Robert Walser's short stories written in teeny tiny pencil script on the back of business cards, matchbook covers, and scraps of paper. Walser is appreciated by some as a modernist, but I'm afraid I found these micro-narratives to be a little thin. The author is deeply removed from the stories, which are highly abstract occasionally nonsensical. It's a shame New Directions lavished so much attention on the book, which is absolutely beautiful: finely bound on thick paper, with richly colored images of Walser's original texts. I tried very hard to enjoy these stories, but they were so profoundly affectless, I simply could not engage. Perhaps another time.