I read this book a while ago, and the further away from it I get, the more it seems to grip my imagination, it's so rich and evocative. I found a Sontag quote about Benjamin that explains exactly the feeling conveyed by his writing. She says each sentence "had to say everything, before the inward gaze of total concentration dissolved the subject before his eyes." Because of that concentration, it can be a challenging reading experience, challenging in a way we don't often encounter in contemporary literature, but so definitely worth the effort.