School reading

            For a class I am reading The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down.  A Hmong child, her American doctors, and the collision of two cultures .by Anne Fadiman. 

            The title comes from the translation of epileptic seizures in the Hmong language.  In their very spiritual culture these episodes are considered the work of the gods and not a disease.  The influxes of this new culture infiltrated America and in this book, specifically the community of Merced California. After helping Americans in the Vietnam conflict, when the war was lost, they were eventually transplanted here.  A nomadic and farming community they were transplanted to a place where they did not understand the language, the customs, or their own place in this new community.  The Hmong are a close knit community and are slow or even non willingness to adapt to American culture as has been their history of survival for centuries.  The communities in America do not understand the customs and spiritual ness of these recent immigrants and the parents and doctors are at odds in following a treatment plan for a young epileptic Hmong girl.  The parents don’t want to give her all the prescribed medication, nor can they read or follow a schedule.  The doctors have a language barrier that hinders understanding and the cultural differences are also beyond comprehension.  This ultimately leads to the child becoming a vegetable.  The parents believe the child has lost her soul and they care for the child at home and a txiv neeb (someone who can commune with the spirits or gods) is called to perform a ceremony to protect the family and call the child’s spirit back.

            The writer is the one who shows where the two worlds collide and writes a great story from two points of view.  The two cultures never see eye to eye even though they come together for the love of this child.

            I would recommend this book because it not only introduces most of us to a new culture but because shows us differences not so easily seen from the out side.  The feeling I get is that we need to take time to understand someone else’s point of view for the benefit of society as a whole  and not just judge people by what we believe.