The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

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

By: Anne Fadiman

Narrated by: Pamela Xiong

Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

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 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.

©1997 Anne Fadiman, Afterword copyright 2012 by Anne Fadiman (P)2015 Audible Inc.

Good audiobook but narrator struggles with basic pronunciation

This is a great narrative of medical anthropology. So my comments for people considering it aren't about the content of the book, but about the production quality of the audiobook. The narrator mispronounces truly basic English words so often that I was both amazed and distracted. Any right minded producer should have corrected these mistakes. I applaud this reader for her Hmong pronunciations, but the tone and pace of the rest of the text is pretty weird. I still recommend it, but you should know that going in.

Interesting, sometimes dry, with many distracting mispronounced words

This is both the story of one Hmong family's interactions with the medical community and the larger story of he Hmong people in America. The author keeps it interesting by switching back and forth between the larger picture and the focused view.
The reader has a nice voice with no accent and seems to know how to pronounce the Hmong words ( although I wouldn't know) but has many mispronounced words that are very distracting and occasionally confusing.

Pronouncing hard words correctly is important

I believe that if you choose a profession recording audiobooks, pronouncing the hard words correctly is as important as diction (and for that matter your editor ought to catch the mistake). Hmong people at MCMC hospital are medically inDIgent but they are certanly not medically InDIGnant.

Surprisingly action packed

Several parts read like a suspense story. As an aspiring doctor it is truly shocking to see the dramatic experiences of this family and how lack of cultural competency can lead to such disastrous outcomes. Didn’t think this would be my kind of book. Once I got past the first two chapters I was pleasantly surprised through the rest of the book.

wonderful book!

must read! great telling of the issues in the medical system and the community they serve

Wow!!!!

Not only was the book amazing but the narrator!! Amazing!!! I had to read this book for school and so I was reluctant but I am so glad I read this book!

Oh man

This is one of the most frustrating and fascinating reads I have ever experienced. If you're in the healthcare profession in any capacity it is well worth your time, but know that it will leave you drained at times.

Good read. I would recommend this type of book.

I initially struggled with the written version as it took me months to read 4 1/2 chapters. I then turned to the audio version and I was able to finish the book in a couple of days. I am glad this book was assigned to our nursing class. I'd never heard of the Hmong people before. I was a child myself when all of the events took place. I also realized how ethnocentric I have been when it comes to different cultures and beliefs. I first noticed my bias in an Anthropology class taken as a prerequisite for the nursing program I'm in. I would recommend this book or others like it to be read by anyone dealing with medical treatments of individuals whom don't necessarily share the same cultural background.

Amazing book!!!

The best book ever!! I loved this book so much I first red it 10 yrs. ago, now I ha d the privilege to listened to it while driving or gardening. This book gives you so much knowledge about other people’s culture. I think this book has the power to make the readers better people. Donald Trump should be reading this book right now!!! Thank you Ann for your hard work and for explaining the life of an immigrant and the reality of what they go through when they first arrived. Love it!!!

The Spirit Caught Me.

This is one of my new favorite books. Cultural relevancy, coupled with compassion and community, push this read into a world of cross-cultural relevance. People learn the best by making friends with individuals who are different from themselves. In this book, disparate groups learn how to set aside their own egos and work together to create a health care system backed by empathy and cultural justice. Plenty of surprises and turns in plot allow readers to explore new content at their own pace. In fact, each viewpoint is given its own spotlight in turns. I can’t imagine a better way to describe the counterbalance of sometimes conflicting cultures to find common ground, and mutual acceptance and friendship than this book.