Benjamin's -abilities

In this demanding book, Weber analyzes Benjaminian theory and its potential, presenting a close reading of Walter Benjamin at his most energetic and complex...Through Benjamin, Weber illuminates what happens between what is written and what is read and the true impossibility of defining any sort of straight line between those two points. Publishers Weekly 20080331 Weber's close readings are illuminating. -- David Gordon Library Journal 20080601 In Benjamin's -abilities, Samuel Weber takes an innovative approach to Walter Benjamin's work. In contrast to the burgeoning secondary literature on Benjamin devoted to broad themes (his "messianism," his "Marxism," etc.), Weber, who has achieved academic prominence with scholarship on the Frankfurt School, psychoanalysis, deconstruction and media culture, opens up a fertile avenue of interpretation by paying close attention to a stylistic idiosyncrasy running through Benjamin's oeuvre...[Weber] deftly navigates this labyrinth of interpretations, exhibiting a keen sense of Benjamin's singularly elusive style of thinking and writing. -- Ross Benjamin Times Literary Supplement 20081114 Not only the best read of 2008 but, with a shelf full of works on Walter Benjamin, the best book on him I've ever read. -- Rosalind Krauss Artforum 20081201