You can't trust what you read about books in mainstream culture; you have to read them yourself to judge. Take Robert Irwin's Dangerous Knowledge: Orientalism and its Discontents. It was widely praised and reviewed in mainstream US culture, and was lauded as an objective treatment of the subject. From the very beginning of the book, you realize you are dealing with a most biased account that does not even try to be fair. He defines Said's Orientalism as a work of "malignant charlatanry" (p. 4), and totally distorts (and caricatures) Said's work. I wish I have more time to say more.