Mismatch (Said's Memoirs)

Author: (American) Edward W. Said, translated by Peng Huading
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-02-01
Features: This book records a world that has largely been lost or forgotten, the world of my early life. Several years ago, I received a medical diagnosis that seemed fatal, and I felt it necessary to leave a subjective account of the Arab world where I was born and raised. In the book, I recall people and places that no longer exist. Edward Said was born in Jerusalem in 1935, but most of his youth was spent in Cairo and Lebanon. This is a moving memoir that records a past that is now fundamentally irretrievable—Palestine is now Israel; Lebanon has been transformed by two decades of civil war; colonial and monarchical Egypt disappeared in 1952. As an Arab Christian, a Palestinian holding an American passport, and someone who could never quite decide whether his native language was Arabic or English, along with a mysterious British name added to his Arab surname, he always felt like an outsider, no matter where he was—a perpetual alien. As someone who had been away from his homeland for many years and faced the constant possibility of death, Said earnestly reflects on his life, tracing his roots, remembering his strict father who gave him a "Victorian-style" education, and his mother, whom he admired all his life, who encouraged him but was also ambiguous and contradictory. He explores and writes about the past self through the lens of the present self, rebuilding a relationship with his inner self, making peace with his deceased parents, and attempting to reclaim history for his nation in a personal way. He unites his divided Arab and American experiences, using his discordant identity to speak out and advocate for the oppressed and silent Palestinians. This book is also a story about leaving one's homeland and wandering, but Said discovers that the resulting fragmented, multiple, and fluid identities are actually a blessing. He once said, "Never feel too much at home anywhere." Ultimately, "not belonging" became his active choice.