Category: cultural studies

Soon to be cross-posted – a review of Humboldt

So I finally got around to writing another blog posting for a book I read not too long ago.  I wrote it originally for my library’s blog – because it’s a good book and it hasn’t been checked out very much.  I’m posting the review here first – it won’t show up on Pima County Public Library’s blog until late September. Continue reading “Soon to be cross-posted – a review of Humboldt”

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: a Hmong Child, her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures

By Anne Fadiman

Place: Publisher & Year: New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1997

Genres: nonfiction, social sciences, anthropology, cultural studies, medicine

ISBN: 9780374525644

Intended audience: Adult

Number of pages: 341 (including Notes, Bibliography, and Index).

Setting: Mostly set in Merced, CA, but also includes places where the Hmong have lived – including China, Laos, & Thailand, and other cities in the US.

Time period: Early to mid 1980’s (but the book also covers different times in the Hmong’s history – including America’s secret war in Laos)

 

Description: When Lia Lee, a Hmong child, was an infant, her older sister slammed the door on her way out.  Immediately afterwards Lia suffered her first epileptic seizure and Lia’s parents took her to the hospital.  Thus began a frustrating and strained relationship between Lia’s parents and hospital staff.  Language barriers and cultural expectations prevented Lia from getting the right care for her, leaving her in a tragic state of being. Continue reading “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: a Hmong Child, her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures”