Reading Orientalism

Varisco's book makes for exhilarating reading. Times Literary Supplement Daniel Martin Varisco's Reading Orientalism: Said and the Unsaid [is] an extensive study that should put to rest, once and for all, the ghost of the formidable Arab-American, culturally Muslim Christian, yet resolutely secular, critic. Supported by 115 pages of exhaustive notes, a 65-page bibliography, and a selective index of essential names not exceeding 12 pages, Reading Orientalism is both a tribute to the spirit that animated Said's Orientalism and a thorough critique of the book's 'manifest flaws.' . American Literary History Varisco's impressive piece of scholarship brings together much of the prior criticisms made of Said's notion of Orientalism and his approach along with the author's own insightful observations ... [A] first-rate assessment by Varisco of his subject. The Review of Politics Varisco's book stakes out a most comprehensive claim: to present systematically and in detail the methodological as well as the general empirical shortcomings of the work [Said's Orientalism], while considering the entire body of prior (English language) criticism, for Said and against. Any defense of Orientalism will have to take into account this scrupulous and precise summation of Said criticism. Kritik Varisco's book is the first to undertake a comprehensive reappraisal of Orientalism in the light of all that has subsequently been written about it. Although recognizing that Said's book was in its time stimulating and pathbreaking, Varisco mounts a sustained and unrelenting assault on what he insists was Said's flawed methodology, his skewed handling of literary evidence, his lack of adequate historical knowledge, and his distorted and tendentious conclusions. This book will enrage Said's many admirers and win the applause of his many detractors. Either way, it is an important and impressively documented work, which deserves a wide audience. Common Knowledge