Al-Dahi examines Edward Said’s autobiography from various perspectives. It first focuses on the memoir’s intellectual dimension, which traces Said’s educational experience and his intellectual evolution. It stresses the depth of his engagement in the writing process, as well as his ability to join his origins in a marginalized culture and an oppressed people with his capacity for critical engagement with the deconstruction of the structures of Western culture, exposing its unspoken foundations and tendencies. The ultimate goal of this process was to formulate his method of criticism, which he termed “contrapuntal criticism”. Secondly, the memoir’s existential dimension is brought into focus, centered on Said’s desire to register a symbolic victory over the specter of death, after his diagnosis with cancer. Finally, the autobiography’s focus on nationalism is analyzed, where story of the life of a Palestinian interacts with the national cause in all its phases, bringing to light the sorrows and the dreams of the Palestinian people, registering their attempts to achieve their national goals.