Mismatch -- Saïd's Memoirs

Author: (American) Edward W. Said, translated by Peng Huading
Publisher:
Publishing Date: Not available
Features: Edward Said was born in Jerusalem in 1935 but spent most of his youth in Cairo and Lebanon. This moving memoir recounts a past that is now largely irretrievable—Palestine is now Israel; Lebanon has been devastated by two decades of civil war; and colonial, monarchical Egypt vanished in 1952. As an Arab Christian, a Palestinian with an American passport, and someone who could never quite decide whether his native language was Arabic or English, and who bore a mysterious British name in his Arab surname, Said always felt like an outsider wherever he went, a perpetual alien. As someone who had been away from his homeland for many years and faced the constant threat of death, Said earnestly reflects on his life, tracing his roots, remembering his demanding, "Victorian-style" father, and his lifelong admiration for his encouraging yet ambiguous and contradictory mother, as well as the environment in which he grew up and the influences he absorbed. With the present self exploring and writing about the past self, he reconstructs a relationship with his inner self, makes peace with his deceased parents, and attempts to reclaim history for his nation in a personal way. He unites the two halves of his 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 exile and wandering, but Said discovers that the resulting fragmented, multiple, and fluid identities are actually a blessing. As he once said, "Never feel too much at home anywhere." Ultimately, "not belonging" became his active choice.