Looking Back - The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman

Nonfiction - Medicine

1997 Noonday Press

Finished on April 4, 2001

Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

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 and 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.

My Original Thoughts (2001):

I thought this was a fascinating book. I feel like it should be a supplemental book in an anthropology class. I highlighted several passages and learned a great deal about Hmong culture. The chapters devoted to Lia Lee and her family were very readable. The others, dealing with the Hmong culture and history, were interesting, but required dedication and patience. I was easily distracted and sometime bored with these chapters. I'm glad I read the book, in spite of not being a gripping story.

My Current Thoughts:

I chose to read this book based on the recommendation of a fellow online book group member (Books on the Fence) over twenty years ago. It was educational and thought-provoking, although at times, somewhat dry. I no longer own my copy, so it's not one that I ever intended to read a second time.