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Summary: Excellent story of a clash of cultures
Review: We have all the answers here in American until another culture enters our sphere - then our answers do not work. Anne Fadiman weaves the story of the Hmong through their history, beliefs, and culture - and how a little Hmong girl had to pay the ultimate sacrifice before the Americans realized their truths are not always right. This book is a must for anyone who is working with the public especially those working with cultures outside the U.S. Very well written.
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Summary: Couldn't put it down
Review: I am a family doctor finishing my training. This is a fascinating look at the jagged interface between cultures and deep, deep chasm between. Thorough, erudite, and very well written. I was up until 3am reading it, and immediately wanted to loan it to friends. There are many lessons for physicians here, some we might even apply to interactions with patients from our own culture. I can't recommend this book highly enough.
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Summary: A beautiful book.
Review: This isn't just a story about an immigrant girl lost in the labyrinth of western medicine, but of human beings who lose sight of the soul, their own and those inhabiting the other. I understood for the first time how a country like ours can indiscriminately bomb and destroy another country without any thought to the annihilation of human life by seeing it first on an individual level: Lia and family meet their western doctors. Fadiman tells a compelling story in a very even-handed manner.
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Summary: Fair minded view of conflict between Hmong and Medicine
Review: Book very informative. Was impressed that in the conflict between western medicine and Hmong culture there were no villains. Didn't downplay the complexity of two fastly different worldviews suddenly cast together.
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Summary: The tragic interaction of traditional culture and modern med
Review: Ann Fadiman's The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is another book about the interaction of childhood illness and society. The child, Lia, in Fadiman's book is a Hmong infant, whose family emigrated from Laos to the United States in the 1980s. Lia has a life-threatening epileptic condition, and the cultural chasm between traditional Hmong beliefs and western medicine proves insoluble. Hmong, like many, non-Cartesian peoples, believe that illness, death, and other life circumstances are the result of actions taken in the spiritual plane. They respond to illnesses or conditions with shamanistic medicine and traditional techniques. Lia, living in central California, becomes the object of logical western medicine which has scant regard (or simple open disdain) for the Hmong ways. When the two sides cannot communicate, tragedy ensues as Lia is taken for a time from her parents, her condition deteriorates, and recriminations fly. Anyone looking at the interactions of two cultures -- and the genuine difficulties in cross-cultural communication and collaborations -- would do well to read this non-judgmental, gracefully written book.
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Summary: Fascinating! A must-read! A fine mesh of Hmong and medicine.
Review: As a former Mormon missionary who spent countless hours trying to translate words like "MRI" and "EKG" into Hmong and never quite getting it right, I felt an immediate bond with the story. Now that I work as a physical therapist, I have a new understanding of the problems that other cultures bring to the medical community. My hat goes off to Anne Fadiman who weaves such a intricate tapestry of the dilemma that health care workers face with the rich culture of the Hmongs. I must say that the situation of the translater being unable to translate because her family was busy doing animal sacrifices, to which the author replied,"I didn't know your family was so religious" was a highlight for me. When the translater replied,"Oh yes, we're Mormon," I burst out laughing for 2 hours! Kudos to you Anne Fadiman! Your book was right on the mark!
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Summary: More Praise:
Review: Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest A Salon Book Award Winner Boston Book Review 1997 Ann Rea Jewell Non-Fiction Prize A New York Times Notable Book A Best Book of the Year (People, Newsday, Glamour, and the Detroit Free Press) Finalist Pen / Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction "Ms. Fadiman tells her story with a novelist's grace, playing the role of cultural broker, comprehending those who do not comprehend each other and perceiving what might have been done or said to make the outcome different." --Richard Bernstein, The New York Times "Fadiman describes with extraordinary skill the colliding worlds of Western medicine and Hmong culture." --The New Yorker "This fine book recounts a poignant tragedy ... It has no heroes or villains, but it has an abundance of innocent suffering, and it most certainly does have a moral ... [A] sad, excellent book." --Melvin Konner, The New York Times Book Review "An intriguing, spirit-lifting, extraordinary exploration of two cultures in uneasy coexistence ... A wonderful aspect of Fadiman's book is her even-handed, detailed presentation of these disparate cultures and divergent views--not with cool, dispassionate fairness but rather with a warm, involved interest that sees and embraces both sides of each issue . . . Superb, informal cultural anthropology -- eye-opening, readable, utterly engaging." --Carole Horn, The Washington Post Book World "Every once in a rare while a nonfiction book comes along that is so good I want to somehow make it required reading ... The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down explores issues of culture, immigration, medicine, and the war in Vietnam with such skill that it's nearly impossible to put down ... I finished [it] saddened but enlightened." --Linnea Lannon, Detroit Free Press "This is a book that should be deeply disturbing to anyone who has given so much as a moment's thought to the state of American medicine. But it is much more ... People are presented as [Fadiman] saw them, in their humility and their frailty--and their nobility." --Sherwin B. Nuland, The New Republic "Anne Fadiman's phenomenal first book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, brings to life the enduring power of parental love in an impoverished refugee family struggling to protect their seriously ill infant daughter and ancient spiritual traditions from the tyranny of welfare bureaucrats and intolerant medical technocrats." --Al Santoli, The Washington Times "A unique anthropological study of American society." --Louise Steinman, Los Angeles Times "When the Lees hedged their bets in 1982 in Merced by taking Lia to the hospital after one of her seizures, everybody lost. Fadiman's account of why Lia failed to benefit over the years from Western medicine is a compelling story told in achingly beautiful prose." --Steve Weinberg, Chicago Tribune "A deeply humane anthropological document written with the grace of a lyric and the suspense of a thriller." --Abby Frucht, Newsday "Fadiman's meticulously researched nonfiction book exudes passion and humanity without casting a disparaging eye at either the immigrant parents, who don't speak English, or the frustrated doctors who can't decipher the baby's symptoms ... The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down conveys one family's story in a balanced, compelling way." --Jae-Ha Kim, The Cleveland Plain Dealer "Fadiman's sensitive reporting explores a vast cultural gap." --People Magazine "Compellingly written, from the heart and from the trenches. I couldn't wait to finish it, then reread it and ponder it again. It is a powerful case study of a medical tragedy." --David H. Mark, Journal of the American Medical Association "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is Fadiman's haunting account, written over a nine-year-period, of one very sick girl in Merced, California ... What happens to Lia Lee is both enlightening and deeply disturbing." --Kristin Van Ogtrop, Vogue "Fadiman gives us a narrative as compelling as any thriller, a work populated by the large cast of characters who fall in love with Lia. This is a work of passionate advocacy, urging our medical establishment to consider how their immigrant patients conceptualize health and disease. This astonishing book helps us better understand our own culture even as we learn about another--and changes our deepest beliefs about the mysterious relationship between body and soul." -Elle "The other day, I picked up a book I had no intention of buying. Eight hours later, having lifted my head only long enough to pay for the book and drive home, I closed Anne Fadiman's The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down and started calling friends ... This is an important book." --Wanda A. Adams, The Honolulu Advertiser
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Summary: This book taught me how to start bridging cultural gaps.
Review: As a first year medical student at the University of Minnesota, this book has had a profound impact on how, in the future, I will communicate with patients. Anne Fadiman's book showed me that medicine is itself a culture with traditions and linguistics just as Hmong culture is. It is important to try and bridge this gap between cultures sooner in a doctor-patient relationship rather than later. This is important because the best opportunity to create a relationship that will be based on trust and mutual understanding occurs at the beginning of the doctor-patient interaction. This can be done by the use of interpreters, cultural brokers, or maybe just an open mind and some extra time. In the end, it will be worth it both for the sake of the patient and for the learning opportunities on both sides.
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Summary: Invaluable insights for interpreters
Review: As a medical interpreter and a student of intercultural relations,this book gave me insights into the clash of world views when immigrants come into contact with the culture of Western medicine. As a reader of fiction, I found it more gripping than most novels. Fadiman's evenhanded treatment of the two cultures is remarkable, and she is a wonderful writer. I find myself recommending this book to everyone I know!
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Summary: Essential reading for all health and human service providers
Review: I have been a public health nurse in Wisconsin for almost fifteen years and, two years ago, started working in neighborhood that has a predominantly Hmong population. The day after I started reading this book, I visited with a family who had a son who developed hearing loss due to a dab during a thunderstorm. The otolarygology consult and hearing aid obtained ten years ago did not help him (He threw the hearing aid in the garbage). He had some improvement after consulting with the shaman. I told the family that I would help them find a western doctor examine him again, if they wanted and they could let me know if and when they were ready to do that. That entire visit was conducted completely different than I would have done the day before. While I was not completely ignorant of Hmong culture, Anne Fadiman did a wonderful job of presenting the "big picture within a small picture" of the implications Hmong migration to the US. My ageny's Hmong interpreter str! ongly recommended that our staff read this book to better enable us to tailor our prevention programs to fit the needs of this community. Having worked with a variety of families with ethnicity, spiritual beliefs and languages different than mine, I hope that readers will see that the message of the book carries lessons that must be applied to all we work with. The most important lesson may be that it is not "fluff" or inefficient to spend time getting to know your clients. Good communications with "clients" and other service providers is the key to providing efficient, effective and (most of all) humane care. In order to have good communication, one has to have awareness of one's own cultural biases and respect for the dignity of others. I would like to thank the Lees, all the health care and other service providers and Anne Fadiman for sharing their experiences so honestly and profoundly. This book will live with me always.
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