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

Fadiman describes with extraordinary skill the colliding worlds of Western medicine and Hmong culture.

The New Yorker

This fine book recounts a poignant tragedyIt has no heroes or villains, but it has an abundance of innocent suffering, and it most certainly does have a moral[A] sad, excellent book.

Melvin Konner, The New York Times Book Review

An intriguing, spirit-lifting, extraordinary exploration of two cultures in uneasy coexistenceA wonderful aspect of Fadimans book is her even-handed, detailed presentation of these disparate cultures and divergent viewsnot with cool, dispassionate fairness but rather with a warm, involved interest that sees and embraces both sides of each issueSuperb, informal cultural anthropologyeye-opening, readable, utterly engaging.

Carole Horn, The Washington Post Book World

This is a book that should be deeply disturbing to anyone who has given so much as a moments thought to the state of American medicine. But it is much morePeople are presented as [Fadiman] saw them, in their humility and their frailtyand their nobility.

Sherwin B. Nuland, The New Republic

Anne Fadimans phenomenal first book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down , brings to life the enduring power of parental love in an impoverished refugee family struggling to protect their seriously ill infant daughter and ancient spiritual traditions from the tyranny of welfare bureaucrats and intolerant medical technocrats.

Al Santoli, The Washington Times

A unique anthropological study of American society.

Louise Steinman, Los Angeles Times

Some writershave done exceedingly well at taking in one or another human scene, then conveying it to othersJames Agee, for instanceand George OrwellIt is in such company that Anne Fadimans writing belongs.

Robert Coles, Commonweal

When the Lees hedged their bets in 1982 in Merced by taking Lia to the hospital after one of her seizures, everybody lost. Fadimans account of why Lia failed to benefit over the years from Western medicine is a compelling story told in achingly beautiful prose.

Steve Weinberg, Chicago Tribune

A deeply humane anthropological document written with the grace of a lyric and the suspense of a thriller.

Abby Frucht, Newsday

Fadimans meticulously researched nonfiction book exudes passion and humanity without casting a disparaging eye at either the immigrant parents, who dont speak English, or the frustrated doctors who cant decipher the babys symptoms The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down conveys one familys story in a balanced, compelling way.

Jae-Ha Kim, The Cleveland Plain Dealer

Fadimans sensitive reporting explores a vast cultural gap.

People Magazine

Compellingly written, from the heart and from the trenches. I couldnt wait to finish it, then reread it and ponder it again. It is a powerful case study of a medical tragedy.

David H. Mark, Journal of the American Medical Association

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is Fadimans haunting account, written over a nine-year period, of one very sick girl in Merced, CaliforniaWhat happens to Lia Lee is both enlightening and deeply disturbing.

Kristin Van Ogtrop, Vogue

Fadiman gives us a narrative as compelling as any thriller, a work populated by the large cast of characters who fall in love with Lia. This is a work of passionate advocacy, urging our medical establishment to consider how their immigrant patients conceptualize health and disease. This astonishing book helps us better understand our own culture even as we learn about anotherand changes our deepest beliefs about the mysterious relationship between body and soul.

Elle

The other day, I picked up a book I had no intention of buying. Eight hours later, having lifted my head only long enough to pay for the book and drive home, I closed Anne Fadimans The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down and started calling friendsThis is an important book.

Wanda A. Adams, The Honolulu Advertiser