"The Language Itself Is The Story": Robert Walser's Microscripts

Continuing their impeccable run—including Sebald, Bolaño, and many other treasures—New Directions just released their latest argument for the book as art and tangible artifact. This beautiful and bristling book stretches its intrigue well beyond the binding. The pieces collected are culled from 526 pages of what was initially assumed to be indecipherable, cryptically minute scribblings, many set to random scraps of paper while Walser was institutionalized in an insane asylum in Switzerland. They turned out to be some of his most insightful and stunning work.

HERE is my review of Microscripts from the latest issue of the L Magazine.