If you’d like a clear sense of literary critic, social commentator, and Palestinian spokesperson Edward Said, check out this informal 114-minute interview, gracefully conducted by British journalist Charles Glass and unobtrusively recorded for British TV by Mike Dibb shortly before Said died of leukemia at age 67. I would have preferred more attention to his groundbreaking books, though his comments on Orientalism provide a succinct and lucid introduction. And his nuanced, impassioned remarks on the Palestinian struggle, including some highly critical remarks about Yasir Arafat, challenge the distortion of his positions that often surfaces in the press. (JR)