Books for Prep | |
 - This Book is Excellent! It is a Must-Read for Anybody Interested in Cross-Cultural ExperiencesI first read this book about three years ago and recently re-read it. I am a socal worker and educator but I have been giving copies of this book to everyone I know because it is relevant to anyone who has any interactions with people of different cultures. It reads like a novel and is a page-turner. It is also loaded with information and written in a literary and beautiful style. The book focuses on the clash between Hmong culture and traditional western medicine. The story is of one little girl with a seizure disorder whose family seeks help from California doctors. The Hmong have a complicated and almost mythological belief system based on centuries of narrative. Their views on health and healing are complex and many of these beliefs are not easily translated into the English language. English may have no word that does justice to the Hmong concept. How the family belief system and their desire to help their daughter results in a terrible clash with the medical doctors in the U.S. is examined by Ms. Fadiman in an exacting and compassionate way. She shows empathy for the Hmong family and the physicians who are trying to treat a girl with a life-threatening illness. The doctors feel like the family is non-compliant and the family feels that they much adhere to their spiritual belief system and treat their daughter in a way much differently than recommended by her physicians. I can't imagine anyone not loving this book, not being able to relate to some experience where they felt that their belief system was not understood by another for any reason. I highly recommend it for a wonderful read and to enhance one's knowledge of the difficulty of trying to truly understand another's cultural beliefs. Rating: - Valuable reading for nurses.This book was required reading for a nursing program I am in. It will forever change the way I view other cultures, and gave me a better understanding of their beliefs and traditions. Although the story is tragic b/c of the unfortunate cascade of events that unfolded, it can serve as an important learning tool in cultural awareness and sensitivity, especially where medicine is concerned. It is a beautiful story of parental love and devotion, even if we (as Americans, familiar only with our own western medicine) dont understand it. Rating:  - Drowning in Details...No Matter How FascinatingWhile I am only about half way through this book, I'm so very frustrated with it that I felt compelled to write a review. I won't deny that the subject matter of this book is both heart wrenching and, at times, appalling as the reader is taken on a difficult journey of exploring 2 cultures clashing at the expense of a defenseless child. However the writers overuse of details, her desire to focus on the menusha and her tangents and asides really bog down this book for me. Perhaps her having written mostly for publications hasn't cultivated her writing so that a successful book might result. This story may have been better told in a 3 or 4 part magazine series or on multi-night series on Dateline or 20/20. I will stick with this book since it is my Book Club read and (perhaps) I will reconsider my strong feelings as I read on, but I feel the writer has done this story an injustice. Rating: - The Spirit Catches You and You Fall DownThis 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 honor their own,) at the expense of their own daughter. I spent the second half of the book falling in love with the Hmong family and culture and gradually grasping their predicament and finally realizing the one thousand and one applications this book has in my own life. Rating:  - A well-balanced case study that reads like a novelFadiman'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. This particularly vicious clash would eventually lead to increased emphasis on intercultural relations and understanding, but only after creating much anger and friction between the immigrant Hmong and US medical community. Fadiman's resultant well-balanced case study reads more like a novel than a nonfiction book. What could have been a long--interesting, but NOT action-packed--block of Laotion/Hmong history, Fadiman integrates seamlessly into her account of a stricken girl, her misunderstood (and misunderstanding) parents, and the frustrated doctors whose efforts to help made her condition worse. I couldn't put it down, I had to know what would happen next, yet enjoyed the many intercultural anecdotes. And how have I never heard of the Quiet War? Was I sick when that was covered in history class? (no, it just never comes up). This was one of the best books I've read for a class--recommended. In association with Amazon.com | |