After Said

by Nikolaus Bacht

Edward W. Said. On Late Style: Music and Literature against the Grain. New York: Pantheon Books, 2006. xix, 179pp. $25.00. ISBN: 0-375-42105-X.

If one were to put one's finger on the most prominent and surprising feature of this book, it would have to be that it is an almost unconditional homage to Adorno. Not only does it begin and end with juicy Adorno quotes; it has Adorno written all over it. Even readers who know that Said had become intrigued with Adorno at some point in the 1980s would not expect this. But as a matter of fact, Said chose to base his entire theory of late style squarely in the "Adorno-cum-Beethoven" tradition—curious enough, to be sure, to review what's at stake here.