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Feb 11, 2011

Inder rated it:

This is the heartbreaking story of Lia, a Hmong girl with epilepsy in Merced. It is intended to be an ethnography, describing two different cultural approaches to Lia's sickness: her Hmong parents' and her American doctors'.

Don't read any further unless you don't mind knowing the basic story told in this book (there are no spoilers, since this is not a book with a surprise ending, but if you want to keep a completely open mind, stop now) ...

I have wavered between four an More...

6 comments like (17 people liked it)

Oct 13, 2007

Lisa rated it:

I knew a little about this case, and before I read the book, I was certain I’d feel infuriated with the Hmong family and feel nothing but disrespect for them, and would side with the American side, even though I have my issues with the western medical establishment as well. Not that I didn’t feel angry (and amused) at times with both sides, but I also ended up empathizing with the people in both sides of this culture clash, which is a testament to Anne Fadiman’s account of the events. My culture More...

2 comments like (13 people liked it)

Oct 16, 2011

Eric rated it:

This is one of the best books I've read. I guess it would be considered part of the medical anthropology genre, but it's so compelling that it sheds that very dry, nerdly-sounding label. This was recommended to me in a cultural literacy course and it certainly delivered.

The story is of the treatment of the epileptic child of a Hmong immigrant family in the American health system. The issue is the clash of cultures and the confusing and heartbreaking results. And the takeaway lesson More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

May 12, 2008

Hamad rated it:

The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down may read like a documentary (thanks to Fadiman’s journalistic background), but it is really an introspection on the western system of medicine and science. We cannot ourselves metaphorically stand back and try to look at the system from the outside. However, comparing it to another (supposedly antithetical) system through the experiences of the Hmong refugees can be used as a tool to do just that. The Hmong’s presumed non-separation of any of the dimensi More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 25, 2008

Robbin rated it:

i read this book for a class i am taking called "human behavior and the social environment." it tells the story of a Hmong family in california with a little girl who has epilepsy. their experience as refugees who are illiterate and unable to speak english, traversing the american medical system ends up tragic. however, the author is really good at giving voice to both sides, the western doctors (impatient, overworked, stubborn, judgmental, dedicated) and the Hmong family (impatient, o More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Feb 18, 2008

Chelsea rated it:

Fadiman wrote a fascinating and sympathetic story about a culture that couldn't be much farther removed from ours in the West. It was especially interesting reading it right after Hitchen's God Is Not Great, because, theoretically, had there been no religion involved there wouldn't have been a real culture clash, and Lia could have grown up as an epileptic but functioning girl. Maybe.

But that's not really the point of Fadiman's book: she doesn't condemn anyone, and, in fact, she po More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Oct 09, 2007

Samantha rated it:

I never would have chosen this book to read on my own. So I must thank Eliza for lending it to me. (I now feel like lending/recommending a book proves friendship...)

I didn't know anything about Hmong culture and now I do. This book also taught me about the American medical system - it looks strange when you step back.

It would have been a good book for me to read when I was in Japan, too, because it kind of opened me up to the idea that people of other cultures can really More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Merritt rated it:

An interesting story that highlights the many cultural differences between Americans and our immigrants (in this case the Hmong culture). Lia Lee is a Hmong child with severe epilepsy and the American doctors trying to treat her clash over her entire life with her parents, who are also trying to treat her condition. Fadiman walks a fine line in describing the story fairly from both perspectives; however, it's difficult, as an American, to not feel some anger toward this girl's family. I learn More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 16, 2007

Ngoc rated it:

This book is sooo good! I especially like the story of Lina and her family and their struggles. I think the book could have been shorter if they didn't go into so much depth about the interworkings of the social service and medical systems. Yes it's messed up and cultural competency is lacking. I liked that it gave enough information to show how the family was treated injustly and Lina couldn't get the medical treatment she needed because the doctors and parents weren't communicating. They all w More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 15, 2009

Hana rated it:

What a fantastic book. This fascinating work of medical anthropology recounts the story (really more of an odyssey) of Lia Lee, the daughter of Hmong refugees who immigrated from Laos to Merced, California. Lia is afflicted with what her doctors diagnose as severe epilepsy and her parents call quag dab peg, or “the spirit catches you and you fall down.” Over the years, as Lia’s condition worsens, her parents and doctors blame one another and themselves. Fadiman masterfully balances the clashing More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jan 31, 2009

Heather rated it:

Anne Fadiman addresses a number of difficult topics in her depiction of a Hmong couple's quest to restore the soul to their child. While I consider myself a culturally sensitive individual, having been raised in a family of doctors and nurses, I have long held the conviction that the world's best doctors (whether imported or native) tread on American soil. Reading Fadiman's account (which sometimes includes actual excerpts from the patient's charts), I was forced to take a hard look at my assump More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Apr 12, 2009

Sarah Pi rated it:

Amazing book. In my work with people with developmental disabilities and epilepsy, I've seen a lot of examples of the disconnect between doctor and patient -- and that's even when both speak a common language and have a common cultural understanding of their roles. This book tells the story of an extreme example, in which the patient's parents neither understood the doctors nor trusted them, and the medical system held a reciprocal inability to understand where the family was coming from. In tel More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 29, 2008

Liz rated it:

This is a fabulous book. I read it several years ago when we were beginning to learn about the Hmong people coming to California and to our schools. I reread it last week after reading Fieldwork (and finding out the the tribe of people he writes about is made up) in order to get a better sense of what people from the hill tribes in Southeast Asia believe, think, and experience. In the case of this book, those thoughts and experiences are in direct conflict with the new country of residence fo More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 25, 2008

Kara rated it:

This book is a nonfiction look at the Hmong people, a Laotian ethnic group many of whom have come to the U.S. as refugees in the decades after they supported the U.S. against the communists in Laos, and the roots and impacts of the cultural misunderstandings that have inevitably arisen between the Hmong and America. A book club favorite, I believe (which is, of course, why I read it).

It alternates between chapters covering cultural history of the Hmong and chapters that focus on the More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 26, 2007

Reid rated it:

Born in 1981, Lia Lee was the daughter of Hmong immigrants new to the United States, who knew little English and little understanding of American culture. Soon after she was born, Lia starts having seizures that are soon diagnosed as epilepsy.
The book is the story of Lia’s life, and the battle to keep her alive. Her parents, with their own strong Hmong cultural beliefs, credited Lia’s seizures to an incident that happened right before her first seizure, when her older sister slammed More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 10, 2007

Jenna rated it:

Extraordinarily well-researched nonfiction book whose author earnestly sought to understand how a medical tragedy involving a young Hmong girl came to take place. The chapter about the involvement of the Hmong people in the Vietnam War should be required reading for all Americans, if only because we shouldn't forget how much we owe these people or what far-reaching ramifications a short-sighted foreign policy can have. Like "Mountains Beyond Mountains," this book makes the argument t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 30, 2007

Anne rated it:

Every once in awhile I start reading a book and I just want to rush out and tell everyone about it. This is one of those books. This is the story of Lia Lee, a newborn Hmong girl living in Merced, California with her parents and seven siblings. Her parents speak no English, and when Lia begins suffering from epilleptic seizures, they reluctantly take her to the nearby hospital. From there, this book chronicles the vast cultural differences between mainstream Americans and the Hmong, and how lang More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jan 29, 2009

OneWorldLibrary rated it:

�Lesley Wright (Bristol): This may be the most popular book in the Literature and Medicine program sponsored by the Vermont Humanities Council. Health care professionals who participated found the story of this Hmong family's clash with the medical profession both powerful and wrenching. Fadiman's role as "cultural broker" is remarkable, helping both parties bridge two very different world views and, in doing so, raising the bar for those of us dealing with our own cultural divides. The More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 26, 2009

Ann rated it:

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is the clash between western medicine and Hmong ritual healing as played out in the care of Lia Lee, a child with epilepsy. Author Anne Fadiman does an incredible job explaining the conflict, because I felt great frustration and great compassion for both the Lee family and the doctors, in succession as the story unfolded. The cultural barrier was often more insurmountable than the language barrier in trying to find common ground between the two worlds. More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 27, 2007

Naeem rated it:

So close and yet so far.

Fadiman sets up an epistemological encounters between US doctors and Hmong culture. The life of a young woman is at stake.

The book is well written, well researched, and Fadiman's heart seems to be in the right place.

The book fails however. Ultimately, as hard as she tries, Fadiman cannot overcome her biases. That would be less of a problem if she did not want to come across as "objective."

A touch of theory a More...

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 03, 2009

Christopher rated it:

All I remember about this book is that I have been searching for it ever since I read half of a friend's copy in college and then forgot the title - that and a few scenes. Unbelievably vivid.

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Nov 25, 2008

Ianthe rated it:

It;s incredible that this is non fiction. It reads like a novel, so rich in description and pathos. I learned a lot about a culture I had never heard of. The Hmong people. It's also an in depth look into our health care system.

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 30, 2010

Christina rated it:

Fascinating, moving work of nonfiction! Here's my review: http://thebluebookcase.blogspot.com/2010...
I really, really wish Ms. Fadiman would publish an updated edition. Or maybe just a "where are they now" appendix. 1997 was a long time ago.

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 28, 2008

Carol rated it:

A very interesting read -- I knew next to nothing about the Hmong culture before reading this book. It's a true story about a Hmong girl with Epilepsy and communication struggles between the girl's family and their doctors in California. I read it a couple of years ago but still think about the things I learned. I do remember that at times it was more detailed than I would prefer, and sometimes the author would site several examples to illustrate a point, so it felt a bit repetitive. Nonethe More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Apr 14, 2008

Janis rated it:

This account of Lia (a Hmong child), her parents, and her western doctors as they all struggle with her epilepsy is heart-breaking and entirely fascinating. The title is a translation of the Hmong phrase for epilepsy and makes clear that the Hmong people feel this is a spiritual crisis. This belief and other Hmong beliefs and practices clash with the intentions and advice of Lia's doctors, with tragic consequences. I could almost feel myself changing as I read this book, in the same way that th More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 28, 2009

Shane rated it:

One of the themes that recurred throughout Fadiman's telling of this tragic turn of events is how the Hmong people and various iterations of American culture(medicine to be sure, but also the public assistance, child protection, etc.) see one another ethnocentrically. She memorably describes this as each party turning the other's "gold into dross." I was pleased at this even-handed assessment. It made me reflect on the fallability we carry as individuals and the need for humilty and cu More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 17, 2009

Rachel rated it:

By intertwining the investigation of a community hospital's failure to work effectively with a young Hmong's girl's family to treat her severe epilepsy and a brief history of the Hmong people, Fadiman manages to raise salient points about the role of healthcare in any culture, the role of healthcare in American culture, and the relationship between the American government, local communities, and refugee immigrants. Although the story of Lia Lee and her family could have been told chronologicall More...

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Dec 19, 2011

Shauna rated it:

Fascinating! Truly a culture clash. After reading this I will try to learn more about the cultural traditions and beliefs.

Favorite quotes:

“Our view of reality is only a view, not reality itself.”

1. What do you call the problem?
"Quag dab peg. That means the spirit catches you and you fall down."

2. What do you think has caused this problem?
"Soul loss."

3. Why do you think it started when it did?
"Lia More...

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Dec 19, 2011

Victoria rated it:

I learned a lot of things for this book, because it covered many things that I was super unfamiliar with. I learned about the war in Vietnam and Laos, the Hmong culture, and about the medical field. In reality, none of those things are of great particular interest to me, but I enjoyed the book, possibly because it was something of a departure from my typical subject matter. It was a little bit of a difficult read, probably because there was a lot of information to absorb, and also I read it ridi More...

0 comments like

Dec 02, 2011

Heidi rated it:

Very thought-provoking. I admit I knew nothing about the Hmong or their culture, and the details the author provides of their history didn't feel tangential to me, despite what many reviewers thought. On the contrary, it helped provide context to explain the actions of her parents and her community. Lia Lee's story is tragic, and the strife it created between the Hmong and her doctors appalling to all the participants involved, but I don't think this strife was what ultimately effected her ou More...

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