In Lightning Flashes

The figure is staged, even stage-managed, in advance of one’s acquaintance. “Dear Walter,” as some devoted fans have called him, is always already known. The details vary by account, but the key points are repeated, so often indeed that they take on an air of mythopoeia. Displaced, disregarded, despised, and rejected, fleeing the reflective embrace of politics and history, Walter Benjamin seeks refuge in Paris, leaving behind his beloved and oft-recalled Berlin. His books and memories jealously safeguarded, he embarks on a project of many beginnings and revisions, destined to remain unfinished at his death — which itself is wrapped in narrative mystery. Like a character in Casablanca, attempting to outpace Nazi security forces, he travels to the French-Spanish border, looking across the frontier to freedom in — perhaps — America.

But he is detained and so despairs. His precious suitcase, supposedly containing the single copy of his magnum opus, The...