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Summary: What a great read! A splendid work of liturature!
Review: The Spirit catches you and you fall down The story is of a family from the county of Laos (right next to Vietnam and Thailand) that comes to the state of California in the late 1980s. They have thirteen children both boys and girls that were all born in Laos, but they were expecting their fourteenth child who was born in Merced California (the place where they chose to live).
Their fourteenth child, yet another daughter named Lia had a serve case a epilepsy; her parents, Foua and Nao Kao lived right next to an American hospital called MCMC and they brought her there every time Lia had a seizure, but there one problem, the parents didn't speak English or understand it, so Lia's illness was diagnosed many times as a different sickness other than epilepsy.
The parents and the doctors tried to figure out what exactly what was wrong with Lia, but since there was a language barrier, it was tough to say what exactly what illness plagued Lia. Foua and Nao Kao knew exactly what illness Lia had, but it was hard explaining to the doctors and there were no interpreters at MCMC (Merced County Medical Center) at the time Foua and Nao Kao brought Lia to the hospital.
The message of the book is that it is tough to teach an immigrant English if they've never heard or studied the language before; the message of this book also points out that there are many countries around the globe who aren't as sophisticated as the United States, no everybody in the world knows how to speak English or even read or write in their own language if the place where they live doesn't have a proper educational system.
The author, Anne Fadiman wrote this book to show the cultural difference/cultural clash between the Hmong people of the country of Laos and Americans or for that matter, any immigrant who comes to the United States with their family and can't communicate because they can't speak the native language of English. She also wrote the book to show the comparison of how modern medicine takes care of Americans and how the Hmong prefer to take care of themselves and the people in their clans by using herbs and medicines found in nature.
Anne Fadiman also wrote the book to show a little bit of how poor American healthcare can be when it comes to immigrants because they may not understand English, there may not be any interpreters to translate their language in English for an American doctor or the immigrant may feel offended with some of the stuff that the hospitals are doing to their child or loved one who is sick and they may prefer to heal the person who is in their clan or family the way that they were taught to by their grandparents or village elders. Or else, immigrants may think that American doctors or just Americans in general are rude and extremely mean if they're offended by what the doctors are doing.
I truly enjoyed the book because it shows that we as Americans sometimes think too highly of ourselves and we don't worry about how immigrants who have never been to the United States before will feel when they first get here. I'm a ninth grader and go to a school called New Roads that really is diverse in its population and the teachers there want us to see history from all view points, which is an interesting perspective. This book really relates to what I'm now learning in History class; we've been learning about all sorts Cultural Anthropology starting with Early Civilizations.
The Cultural Anthropology is very interesting because through this book and the material that I've studied in class, I've learned that it is hard to be a person from another country who emigrates from their native country to live in a country that is around the other half of the world because of the poor economy of their country or because of war or anything else that could be disrupting the lives of other people around the world.
This book is a truly excellent read, and I recommend it to any one who is studying Cultural Anthropology in their school history class because it shows how tough immigrants are and how bold and brave there are to leave the country that they've been born in and venture to the far reaches of the Earth to find a place to live, but it also shows how both immigrants, if they are sick and American doctors can work to solve a problem if they work together as a team.
The only way to let immigrants see that American doctors are here to help them get healthy, not make them sick; the American hospitals also need to make their faculties more multi-cultural and have people who are bilingual in many different languages so that immigrants don't have to struggle to communicate with American doctors and get the health care that they deserve if anybody in their family is sick.
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Summary: Watch OUT for the wrong assumptions about HMONG
Review: Good book!!! I'm HMONG myself... and if you ever read this book, watch out for the assumptions made about the Hmong people, and the negative comments...argh!! I underlined all the wrong assumptions and the negative comments.... you wouldn't believe some of the things people would say! anyway, it's still an interesting book, some facts about the Hmong people in the book are true though. It just really upsets me that the book protrayed the Hmong people to be DUMB and STUPID.
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Summary: A non-biased journalistic approach
Review: In contrast to what some other reviewers have written, I found this book very non-biased. As a physician, I felt neither attacked, nor blamed. Rather, I felt that the author portrayed both sides of the problem in a very nonjudgmental, journalistic manner. It has made me more mindful of the cultural issues that may be affecting my patient's ability/willingness to comply with my treatment regimens.
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Summary: Interesting book, but overly long and decidedly one-sided
Review: It took me nine months to finally finish this book. It is easy to put down and at times I wondered if I really cared to pick it back up. The story of the Hmong child takes about half of this 288 page book. At that point I was left wondering why she was telling this girl's story and what could she possibly have left to say that would take the rest of the book to say. Well...the first half is used to set up the doctor bashing that dominates the second half of the book. She painstakingly teased every medical record and used out of context quotes form medical texts and journals to paint physicians as uncaring eggheads with no interest in the patient and his culture, only in the disease that has occupied the patient's body. This is all done in perfect 20-20 hindsight, which is rather a cheap shot. She obviously devoted years to researching the Hmong in America to write this book and finds it amazing that physicians are not as knowlegeable as she on Hmong culture, not apparently appreciating that doctors treat people from hundreds of cultures, not just Hmong, or hispanic, or Native American, or punk, or Hell's Angel. Physicians really do their very best to accomodate them all.
The reader should realize this is a book about the Hmong in America in the 1980's. This author has apparently never been to Laos and I felt myself thinking how much better the book could have been if she had been able to give some genuine insight into the contrast between the level of happiness and standard of living between the Hmong now living in America and the Hmong that returned to Laos. I may be an uncaring doctor, but I at least care enough to have visited Thailand and Laos.
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Summary: Fascinating and beautiful
Review: I was assigned to read this book in an anthropology class. I'll admit I don't always enjoy books that I'm forced to read - but I couldn't put this one down!! Fadiman writes beautifully and teaches the reader so much. The mixture of science and prose is perfect. You don't have to be interested in epilepsy, medicine, or the Hmong people to enjoy this book. I highly recommend it.
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Summary: Very good book, but some flaws
Review: I think very highly of this book, and use it in one of my classes. But readers should be aware of two things:
1. The events described in this book took place in the 1980s, not long after Hmong refugees first came to the United States. This book describes a Hmong family at that point in time. Today many Hmong are college-educated professionals (some are doctors). Fadiman's book might - unintentionally - promote some stereotypes.
2. The historical background in chapter 2, especially the account of the Hmong in China, is nearly worthless. Fadiman perpetuates the errors in Keith Quincy's _Hmong: History of a People._ (The story of the "Hmong" king Sonom's defeat by China, for example, actually concerns the conquest of the Jinchuan people, who were not Hmong.)
Despite my reservations, Fadiman's book is on the whole a sensitive and compelling account of the clash of two cultures. But it should be read critically.
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Summary: Teacher of Visually Impaired Students says...
Review: The importance of this book goes way beyond the medical establishment to anyone interested in cultural understanding. Teachers, students, historians, anyone who might come into contact with members of the Hmong community will find this book fascinating. Five copies will soon be arriving in my mailbox to pass around to people at the school where I teach.
Since I am not associated with any health care organization, I put reading this book low on my list of priorities until someone recommended it as good reading. I found it a real page-turner, emotionally upsetting at times, and delightful too. For history of the Viet Nam war alone, it is well worth reading.
Even if you never meet a Hmong person in your life, I recommend it.
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Summary: A sad clash of cultures
Review: "The Spirit Catches You" is about a young Hmong girl suffering from severe seizures and the cultural clash between her American doctors and her parents. The book is wonderfully written and painfully sad. One one level, it is hard to read -- not just because it is sad -- because it is frustrating. You want the child to get treatment so that she can live as normal of a life as possible, but you can also understand the way things appear to the poor parents who see things through the eyes of another culture. Plus with their language barrier the poor parents don't even understand WHY the horrible things their daughter is going through are for the better, according to the doctors. I read this book for a college course, but it would have been one that I would have appreciated in high school, as well. It is a learning tool on both an anthropological and sociological level. Good for helping people to understand that culture differences are more than "I am right" and "you are wrong"; this book allows you to see an issue from multiple sides and see things aren't always that simple.
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Summary: An interesting look at cultural difference
Review: This book was a good look at two different cultures dealings in the medical community. Lia's story was tragic, but well written. The author does an excellent job of showing both sides. One minute you sympathize with the Lee's and feel that they are not being respected by the medical community. Then you side with the California Doctors thinking Lia would improve if only the Lees would follow directions. An excellent cultural study!
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Summary: A true look into another culture, a most read!
Review: I had to read this book for a college class, but besides find it just interesting, I found it as a true eye opener. I never knew about the Hmong much less any of the trouble they had with American doctors. It's amazing that this story is true. Ann Fadiman does a good job explaining the Hmong and why they are the way they are. She explains their cultural history and what it is like for them in present time. I found this book very helpful in opening my eyes to this particular culture. I myself have had some of my family read it and each of them have enjoyed it. I recomend it to anyone.
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