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by: Anne Fadiman  Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Dewey Decimal Number: 362 EAN: 9780374975807 ISBN: 0374975809 Label: Farrar Straus & Giroux Manufacturer: Farrar Straus & Giroux Publication Date: September 30, 1998 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Studio: Farrar Straus & Giroux Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Amazon.com Review: Lia Lee was born in 1981 to a family of recent Hmong immigrants, and soon developed symptoms of epilepsy. By 1988 she was living at home but was brain dead after a tragic cycle of misunderstanding, overmedication, and culture clash: "What the doctors viewed as clinical efficiency the Hmong viewed as frosty arrogance." The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is a tragedy of Shakespearean dimensions, written with the deepest of human feeling. Sherwin Nuland said of the account, "There are no villains in Fadiman's tale, just as there are no heroes. People are presented as she saw them, in their humility and their frailty--and their nobility." Product Description: 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. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - GREAT!THE BOOK WAS IN EXCELLENT CONDITION, AS DESCRIBED BY THE SELLER. SHIPPING WAS VERY QUICK! Rating:  - great bookSo far I'm about 2/3 of the way through the book. Excellent representation of the clash of cultures. I would recommend this to any patient or health care provider. Product shipped fast and in great condition. Rating: - Fantastic book!! Interesting and InformativeThis book is a page turner! The author illustrates very well the perspectives of both the Hmong immigrants and their American medical providers, helping the reader to understand and relate to a variety of issues related to immigration, healthcare, the Hmongs, and other contemporary concerns. I read this book for a college class, it is great for students and casual reading as well. Rating:  - great insight but...This books gives great insight into the hmong people, modern medical practices, and cultural clash. I am glad I read the book, but not sure I would call it a great read. It's kind of like reading a research paper. There is a ton of very detailed documentation of events that became monotonous and slightly predictable. While I enjoyed the underlying story a great deal, the minutia often seemed distracting from what could have been a good read. Rating: - Excellence in a story about another cultureThis true story about a Central California Hmong family recounts the recent history of the Hmong people, and enlightens the reader about a culture vastly different than our own. The author describes the nomadic lifestyle of the Hmong, who have lived throughout the Southeast Asian mountaintops, settling until the land is exhausted and then moving on. They aligned with the United States during the VietNam conflict only to be abandoned to hostile local governments once it was over. Their survival stories ... Read More 
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