The spirit catches you and you fall down : a Hmong child, her American doctors, and the collision of two cultures Cover Image

Book

The spirit catches you and you fall down : a Hmong child, her American doctors, and the collision of two cultures / Anne Fadiman.

Fadiman, Anne, 1953- (Author).

Summary:

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. -- Provided by Publisher on back cover.

Record details

ISBN: 9780374533403
ISBN: 0374533407
Physical Description: ix, 355 pages ; 21 cm
Edition: Paperback edition.
Publisher: New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012.

Content descriptions

General Note:	Includes new afterword by the author. Originally published: New York : Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1997.
Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 327-340) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	Birth -- Fish soup -- The spirit catches you and you fall down -- Do doctors eat brains? -- Take as directed -- High-velocity transcortical lead therapy -- Government property -- Foua and Nao Kao -- A little medicine and a little neeb -- War -- The big one -- Flight -- Code X -- The melting pot -- Gold and dross -- Why did they pick Merced? -- The eight questions -- The life or the soul -- The sacrifice.