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Book Review of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures

MediumDebbi avatar reviewed on + 92 more book reviews


This book 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 the doctors both want what's best for Lia, but the lack of understanding between them leads to tragedy. Anne Fadiman's compassionate account of this cultural impasse is literary journalism at it's best. ( From the book jacket)