The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction

When three-month-old Lia Lee Arrived at the county hospital emergency room in Merced, California, a chain of events was set in motion from which neither she nor her parents nor her doctors would ever recover. Lia's parents, Foua and Nao Kao, were part of a large Hmong community in Merced, refugees from the CIA-run "Quiet War" in Laos. The Hmong, traditionally a close-knit and fiercely people, have been less amenable to assimilation than most immigrants, adhering steadfastly to the rituals and beliefs of their ancestors. Lia's pediatricians, Neil Ernst and his wife, Peggy Philip, cleaved just as strongly to another tradition: that of Western medicine. When Lia Lee Entered the American medical system, diagnosed as an epileptic, her story became a tragic case history of cultural miscommunication.

Parents and doctors both wanted the best for Lia, but their ideas about the causes of her illness and its treatment could hardly have been more different. The Hmong see illness aand healing as spiritual matters linked to virtually everything in the universe, while medical community marks a division between body and soul, and concerns itself almost exclusively with the former. Lia's doctors ascribed her seizures to the misfiring of her cerebral neurons; her parents called her illness, qaug dab peg--the spirit catches you and you fall down--and ascribed it to the wandering of her soul. The doctors prescribed anticonvulsants; her parents preferred animal sacrifices.
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Recent Reviews

5/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Jan-25-2009; The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down; This was a fantastic read. I spent the first half of the book outraged at the Hmong family for never bothering to learn the English language or educate themselves on American customs, (while clearly expecting every American to know and...; read full review | report as inappropriate

4/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Jan-19-2009; A well-balanced case study that reads like a novel; Fadiman's well-researched and multi-faceted book recounts a particular clash of cultures between a Hmong family that fled the effects of the Quiet War in Laos for the US, and their tribulations with the Merced County, CA medical system....; read full review | report as inappropriate

2/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Jan-13-2009; More like ... you fall asleep.; Ok, let's just call it what it is - a chic book. That can be good and bad I guess. For me, I couldn't stay awake. In fact, I only made it halfway through. This is for the type of people who dig historical fiction or for those who pretend...; read full review | report as inappropriate

5/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Jan-09-2009; Fantastic; Loved this book! I learned tons about the Hmong culture that I didn't otherwise know. I also gained a lot of insight into the potential clash between Western and Eastern cultures.; read full review | report as inappropriate

Selected Reviews

5/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Jan-25-2009; The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down; This was a fantastic read. I spent the first half of the book outraged at the Hmong family for never bothering to learn the English language or educate themselves on American customs, (while clearly expecting every American to know and...; read full review | report as inappropriate

3/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Apr-12-2008; Fair; This was a required reading for my college class. It was a good read, story base; yet, it was also a frustrating read. Trying to get past the authors too many details - took you on sides roads from the real story. It is a sad story.; read full review | report as inappropriate

2/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Jan-13-2009; More like ... you fall asleep.; Ok, let's just call it what it is - a chic book. That can be good and bad I guess. For me, I couldn't stay awake. In fact, I only made it halfway through. This is for the type of people who dig historical fiction or for those who pretend...; read full review | report as inappropriate