Anne Fadiman. (1998). The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Anne Fadiman. 1998. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Anne Fadiman, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998.

Anne Fadiman. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998.

OverDrive Product Record

images

• cover:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/2390-1/{96B9D1C1-7F32-4EBD-9286-DB85A38BF8DC}Img100.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• thumbnail:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/2390-1/{96B9D1C1-7F32-4EBD-9286-DB85A38BF8DC}Img200.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover150Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/2390-1/96B/9D1/C1/{96B9D1C1-7F32-4EBD-9286-DB85A38BF8DC}Img150.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover300Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/2390-1/96B/9D1/C1/{96B9D1C1-7F32-4EBD-9286-DB85A38BF8DC}Img400.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg

formats

1. • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9781429931113
   • name: Adobe EPUB eBook
   • id: ebook-epub-adobe
2. • identifiers:
     1. • type: ASIN
        • value: B003OYIA9M
   • name: Kindle Book
   • id: ebook-kindle
3. • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9781429931113
   • name: OverDrive Read
   • id: ebook-overdrive

otherFormatIdentifiers

1. • type: ISBN
   • value: 9780374525644

mediaType

eBook

primaryCreator

• role: Author
• name: Anne Fadiman

title

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

dateAdded

2015-12-23T18:04:07.9-05:00

contentDetails

1. • href: https://link.overdrive.com/?websiteID=141&titleID=515085
   • type: text/html
   • account:
     • name: Sacramento Public Library (CA)
     • id: 1151

sortTitle

Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down A Hmong Child Her American Doctors and the Collision of Two Cultures

crossRefId

515085

subtitle

A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures

id

96b9d1c1-7f32-4ebd-9286-db85a38bf8dc

starRating

4.3

OverDrive MetaData

isPublicDomain

False

formats

1. • fileName: TheSpiritCatchesYoua_9781429931113_515085
   • partCount: 0
   • fileSize: 883838
   • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9781429931113
   • rights:
     1. • type: Copying
        • value: 0
     2. • type: Printing
        • value: 0
     3. • type: Lending
        • value: 0
     4. • type: ReadAloud
        • value: 0
     5. • type: ExpirationRights
        • value: 0
   • name: Adobe EPUB eBook
   • isReadAlong: False
   • id: ebook-epub-adobe
   • onSaleDate: 9/30/1998
   • samples:
     1. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-epub-adobe
        • url: https://excerpts.cdn.overdrive.com/FormatType-410/2390-1/96B/9D1/C1/SpiritCatchesYouandYouFallDownAHmongC9781429931113.epub
     2. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-overdrive
        • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=96B9D1C1-7F32-4EBD-9286-DB85A38BF8DC&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
2. • fileName: TheSpiritCatchesYoua_515085
   • partCount: 0
   • fileSize: 0
   • identifiers:
     1. • type: ASIN
        • value: B003OYIA9M
   • name: Kindle Book
   • isReadAlong: False
   • id: ebook-kindle
   • onSaleDate: 9/30/1998
   • samples:
     1. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-epub-adobe
        • url: https://excerpts.cdn.overdrive.com/FormatType-410/2390-1/96B/9D1/C1/SpiritCatchesYouandYouFallDownAHmongC9781429931113.epub
     2. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-overdrive
        • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=96B9D1C1-7F32-4EBD-9286-DB85A38BF8DC&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
3. • fileName: TheSpiritCatchesYoua_9781429931113_515085
   • partCount: 0
   • fileSize: 0
   • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9781429931113
   • name: OverDrive Read
   • isReadAlong: False
   • id: ebook-overdrive
   • onSaleDate: 9/30/1998
   • samples:
     1. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-epub-adobe
        • url: https://excerpts.cdn.overdrive.com/FormatType-410/2390-1/96B/9D1/C1/SpiritCatchesYouandYouFallDownAHmongC9781429931113.epub
     2. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-overdrive
        • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=96B9D1C1-7F32-4EBD-9286-DB85A38BF8DC&.epub-sample.overdrive.com

keywords

1. • value: culture clash
2. • value: immigrants
3. • value: Cultural anthropology
4. • value: Immigration
5. • value: laos
6. • value: awards
7. • value: books about medicine
8. • value: Best books
9. • value: books about immigration
10. • value: award winners
11. • value: award winning books
12. • value: hmong culture
13. • value: hmong people
14. • value: best nonfiction
15. • value: hanukkah gift
16. • value: famous books
17. • value: christmas stocking stuffer ideas
18. • value: holiday christmas presents
19. • value: books about culture clash
20. • value: books about modern medicine
21. • value: national book critics circle awards winner

creators

1. • role: Author
   • fileAs: Fadiman, Anne
   • bioText: Anne Fadiman is the author of The Wine Lover's Daughter, a memoir about her father (FSG, 2017). Her first book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down (FSG, 1997), won the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the Salon Book Award. Fadiman has also written two essay collections, At Large and At Small and Ex Libris, and is the editor of Rereadings: Seventeen Writers Revisit Books They Love (all published by FSG). She is the Francis Writer-in-Residence at Yale.
   • name: Anne Fadiman

publishDate

1998-09-30T00:00:00-04:00

isOwnedByCollections

True

title

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

fullDescription

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down explores the clash between a small county hospital in California and a refugee family from Laos over the care of Lia Lee, a Hmong child diagnosed with severe epilepsy.
Lia's parents and her doctors both wanted what was best for Lia, but the lack of understanding between them led to tragedy. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest, and the Salon Book Award, Anne Fadiman's compassionate account of this cultural impasse is literary journalism at its finest.
______

Lia Lee 1982-2012
Lia Lee died on August 31, 2012. She was thirty years old and had been in a vegetative state since the age of four. Until the day of her death, her family cared for her lovingly at home.

reviews

1. • premium: False
   • source: Richard Berstein, The New York Times
   • content:

     "Ms. Fadiman tells her story with a novelist's grace, playing the role of cultural broker, comprehending those who do not comprehend each other and perceiving what might have been done or said to make the outcome different."

2. • premium: False
   • source: Linnea Lannon, The Detroit Free Press
   • content: "So good I want to somehow make it required reading...The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down explores issues of culture, immigration, medicine, and the war in [Laos] with such skill that it's nearly impossible to put down."
3. • premium: False
   • source: Michael Berube, author of Life As We Know It

   • content: "This is a captivating riveting book--a must-read not only for medical professionals, anthropologists, and journalists, but for anyone interested in how to negotiate cultural difference in a shrinking world. Fadiman's ability to empathize with the resolutely independent Hmong as well as with the remarkable doctors, caseworkers, and officials of Merced County makes her narrative both richly textured and deeply illuminating. Sometimes the stakes here are multicultural harmony and understanding; sometimes they're literally life and death--whether in wartime Laos or in American emergency rooms. But whatever the stakes and wherever the setting, Fadiman's reporting is meticulous, and prose is a delight. From start to finish, a truly impressive achievement."
4. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     September 1, 1997
     When two divergent cultures collide, unbridgeable gaps of language, religion, social customs may remain between them. This poignant account by Fadiman, editor of the American Scholar, of the clash between a Hmong family and the American medical community reveals that among the gaps yawns the attitude toward medicine and healing. The story focuses on Lia Lee, whose family immigrated to Merced, Calif., from Laos in 1980. At three months of age, Lia was diagnosed with what American doctors called epilepsy, and what her family called quag dab peg or, "the spirit catches you and you fall down." Fadiman traces the treatments for Lia's illness, observing the sharp differences between Eastern and Western healing methods. Whereas the doctors prescribed Depakene and Valium to control her seizures, Lia's family believed that her soul was lost but could be found by sacrificing animals and hiring shamans to intervene. While some of Lia's doctors attempted to understand the Hmong beliefs, many interpreted the cultural difference as ignorance on the part of Lia's parents. Fadiman shows how the American ideal of assimilation was challenged by a headstrong Hmong ethnicity. She discloses the unilateralness of Western medicine, and divulges its potential failings. In Lia's case, the two cultures never melded and, after a massive seizure, she was declared brain dead. This book is a moving cautionary tale about the importance of practicing "cross-cultural medicine," and of acknowledging, without condemning, differences in medical attitudes of various cultures.

popularity

1449

links

• self:
  • href: https://api.overdrive.com/v1/collections/v1L1BWwAAAA2I/products/96b9d1c1-7f32-4ebd-9286-db85a38bf8dc/metadata
  • type: application/vnd.overdrive.api+json

id

96b9d1c1-7f32-4ebd-9286-db85a38bf8dc

starRating

4.2

images

• cover:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/2390-1/{96B9D1C1-7F32-4EBD-9286-DB85A38BF8DC}Img100.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• thumbnail:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/2390-1/{96B9D1C1-7F32-4EBD-9286-DB85A38BF8DC}Img200.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover150Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/2390-1/96B/9D1/C1/{96B9D1C1-7F32-4EBD-9286-DB85A38BF8DC}Img150.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover300Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/2390-1/96B/9D1/C1/{96B9D1C1-7F32-4EBD-9286-DB85A38BF8DC}Img400.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg

isPublicPerformanceAllowed

False

languages

1. • code: en
   • name: English

subjects

1. • value: Sociology
2. • value: Nonfiction

publishDateText

09/30/1998

otherFormatIdentifiers

1. • type: ISBN
   • value: 9780374533403

mediaType

eBook

shortDescription

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down explores the clash between a small county hospital in California and a refugee family from Laos over the care of Lia Lee, a Hmong child diagnosed with severe epilepsy.
Lia's parents and her doctors both wanted what was best for Lia, but the lack of understanding between them led to tragedy. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest, and the Salon Book Award, Anne Fadiman's compassionate account of this cultural impasse is literary journalism at its finest.
______

Lia Lee 1982-2012
Lia Lee died on August 31, 2012. She was thirty years old and had been in a vegetative state since the age of four. Until the day of her death, her family cared for her lovingly at home.

sortTitle

Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down A Hmong Child Her American Doctors and the Collision of Two Cultures

crossRefId

515085

subtitle

A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures

publisher

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

bisacCodes

1. • code: SOC002010
   • description: Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural & Social
2. • code: SOC057000
   • description: Social Science / Disease & Health Issues