I have been utterly blown away by the breadth and depth of this biography of Edward Said, his thought, and intellectual pursuits. The man was more than "just" a rock star of English professors; in his person and writing converged the cultivation of intellect with a sublime virtuosity in linguistics and a swift-blossoming awareness of the necessity for identity in both personal and public arenas. That he was, in fact, a Palestinian American born in Jerusalem, "dispossessed of home and homeland by the British mandate of 1948, raised in Cairo and wont to downplay his Palestinian identity at the beginning of his academic career makes the significance of what he accomplished all the more astounding. Still in the grasp of this book, I find myself slammed by the realization that there has been no one to replace Said, no other Arab American professor to continue the necessary discussion of the value of Arabic language, culture, and civilization on the world stage despite the fact that this significant portion of mankind matches no particular minority group typically championed in the West. Timothy Brennan , for whom Said was a mentor, demonstrates that this extraordinary American English professor was irreplaceable. If you teach English and have never heard of him, the time to learn is now.

As a child Edward Said (1935-2003) became immersed in and inspirated by music and books, becoming a pianist at a young age and reaching a standard that enabled him to consider music as a career.  This was only one of many open to him.

Ultimately he did not choose music or philosophy or linguistics or any of the many other career paths available to his genius but did his PhD in English Literature at the Universtiy of Columbia, writing his thesis on Conrad, examining attitudes to colonialism in ‘Heart of Darkness’ and ultimately taking up a Professorship.  Said was instrumental in founding a new stream of literary criticism called post-colonialism. Along the path of his legendary career he met everyone who was anyone in 20th century critical theory including Sartre, Naom Chomsky and Martin Heidegger.  He became according to the author:

“One of the great public intellectuals of the post war period
along with Naom Chomsky, Susan Sontag and Hannah Arendt.”

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A comprehensive cradle-to-grave biography of Edward Said, meticulously researched, detailed and scholarly but always clearly and accessibly written. Author Timothy Brennan knew Said and conducted interviews with many other people who also knew him, giving a balanced view of this most complex of men. Brennan doesn’t hide his affection and admiration for Said, but the book is in no way a hagiography and he doesn’t ignore Said’s failings. I found it an absorbing and engaging read.

I first got into Edward Said’s thought during the class of postcolonial literature during my college days. His book which was first published in 1978, ‘Orientalism’, caused controversy in the West and stirred countless debates until his death in 2003. In his book, he establishes the eponymous term ‘orientalism’ as a critical concept to describe the West’s commonly contemptuous depiction and portrayal of the East (or the Orient). As Said’s former student, Timothy Brennan got access to know Said personally besides extensive archives ranging from Said’s personal documents to notes by the FBI which was the results of Said’s years of activism to champion the cause of the Palestinians.

Born Edward William Said on 1 November 1935 in Jerusalem, at that time part of British Mandate Palestine, it is interesting to see how the author in this book tries to clear up a fact that Said’s nemeses used to undermine his legacy. Many online sources, even Wikipedia, cite Said’s middle name as Wadie which was his father’s name, as an attempt to Arabize his name. Said had countless enemies in the academic world, much more so in terms of his activism to support Palestine after his family’s displacement in 1948 with the creation of the State of Israel.

Timothy Brennan, through this book, attempts to provide some clarifications to Edward Said’s life through which we might notice some contradictory information from what commonly believed about this person. Various scholars who have read Said’s works might be familiar with his theories in post-colonialism and comparative literature, but little that we know about Said the Man and the contradictions within himself. We get exposed to some behind the scenes of Said’s adolescence in Cairo and his days as a Princeton undergraduate which is free of Said’s own subjectivities, unlike in his memoir ‘Out of Place’.

Another interesting fact that I encountered from this biography is also the musical side of Said. During the time he lived in Cairo, Said learned piano under the tutelage of Polish pianist Ignacy Tiegerman and even considered a career as a professional musician after several years studying at Princeton. It was his decision to immerse himself in the literature that gave birth to various interesting works such as his magnum opus ‘Orientalism’, but actually there have been many papers published by Said about music and Timothy Brennan could analyze through various works of Said that seem to be unrelated to one another to show the complexities inside this individual.

Said’s relation with religion was also a strange case too, as he was born into a family of Christian Arab, whereas many people even to this day keep associating Arab with Muslims. I find his life an interesting case study, especially the way he delved deep into Joseph Conrad’s works and personalities for his dissertation. Both Said and Conrad were exiled (Conrad left his native Poland to settle in England) and both wrote in a borrowed language (English). Their lives found parallel to each other somehow, even though Conrad had been dead for 11 years by the time Said was born.

And it was really news to me that Said even harboured literary ambition up until 1965, drafting his novel and sending out short stories to a few magazines and newspapers, only to be rejected. He soon however made his name as a prominent literary critic in the 1970s, along with the kind of Susan Sontag and Noam Chomsky, without pursuing further his literary ambition. Sometimes, I wonder whether it is possible to be both at the same time an accomplished literary novelist while also becoming a staunch critic. And I have been thinking for a while that literature departments at colleges are more suitable to produce literary critics rather than literary novelists. Looking at Said’s life, I got reminded more that all of us are in this constant race against time and this book is surely an interesting gem to dig deep more into Said the Man before Said the Critics.

Places of Mind explores the life and thinking of Edward Said, whose work continues to shape spaces in academia. Said’s work has implications for my field included (literacy), and this book offers much in considering his background and the development of his ideas. I appreciated the accessibility of this text, as well. Recommended for readers (and courses) focused on exploring Said’s work and educational theory in general.