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Looking For Palestine
Najla Said
Growing Up Confused in an Arab-American Family
Riverhead
August 2013
On Sale: August 1, 2013
272 pages
ISBN: 1594487081
EAN: 9781594487088
Kindle: B00C5R7G3U
Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction Memoir
A frank and entertaining memoir, from the daughter of
Edward Said, about growing up second-generation Arab
American and struggling with that identity.
The daughter of a prominent Palestinian father and a
sophisticated Lebanese mother, Najla Said grew up in New
York City, confused and conflicted about her cultural
background and identity. Said knew that her parents
identified deeply with their homelands, but growing up in a
Manhattan world that was defined largely by class and
conformity, she felt unsure about who she was supposed to
be, and was often in denial of the differences she sensed
between her family and those around her. The fact that her
father was the famous intellectual and outspoken Palestinian
advocate Edward Said only made things more complicated. She
may have been born a Palestinian Lebanese American, but in
Said’s mind she grew up first as a WASP, having been
baptized Episcopalian in Boston and attending the wealthy
Upper East Side girls’ school Chapin, then as a teenage Jew,
essentially denying her true roots, even to herself—until,
ultimately, the psychological toll of all this self-hatred
began to threaten her health.
As she grew older,
making increased visits to Palestine and Beirut, Said’s
worldview shifted. The attacks on the World Trade Center,
and some of the ways in which Americans responded, finally
made it impossible for Said to continue to pick and choose
her identity, forcing her to see herself and her passions
more clearly. Today, she has become an important voice for
second-generation Arab Americans nationwide.
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