Awards | Reviews

Awards
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction
Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest
A Salon Book Award Winner
Boston Book Review 1997 Ann Rea Jewell Non-Fiction Prize
A New York Times Notable Book
A Best Book of the Year (People, Newsday, Glamour, and the Detroit Free Press)
Finalist PEN / Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction

Reviews
"Ms. Fadiman tells her story with a novelist's grace, playing the role of cultural broker, comprehending those who do not comprehend each other and perceiving what might have been done or said to make the outcome different." --Richard Bernstein, The New York Times

"Fadiman describes with extraordinary skill the colliding worlds of Western medicine and Hmong culture." --The New Yorker

"This fine book recounts a poignant tragedy . . . It 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 coexistence . . . A wonderful aspect of Fadiman's book is her even-handed, detailed presentation of these disparate cultures and divergent views -- not with cool, dispassionate fairness but rather with a warm, involved interest that sees and embraces both sides of each issue . . . Superb, informal cultural anthropology -- eye-opening, readable, utterly engaging." --Carole Horn, The Washington Post Book World

"Every once in a rare while a nonfiction book comes along that is so good I want to somehow make it required reading . . . The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down explores issues of culture, immigration, medicine, and the war in Vietnam with such skill that it's nearly impossible to put down . . . I finished [it] saddened but enlightened." --Linnea Lannon, Detroit Free Press

"This is a book that should be deeply disturbing to anyone who has given so much as a moment's thought to the state of American medicine. But it is much more . . . People are presented as [Fadiman] saw them, in their humility and their frailty -- and their nobility." --Sherwin B. Nuland, The New Republic

"Anne Fadiman's 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

"When the Lees hedged their bets in 1982 in Merced by taking Lia to the hospital after one of her seizures, everybody lost. Fadiman's 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

"Fadiman's meticulously researched nonfiction book exudes passion and humanity without casting a disparaging eye at either the immigrant parents, who don't speak English, or the frustrated doctors who can't decipher the baby's symptoms . . . The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down conveys one family's story in a balanced, compelling way." --Jae-Ha Kim, The Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Fadiman's sensitive reporting explores a vast cultural gap." --People Magazine

"Compellingly written, from the heart and from the trenches. I couldn't 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 Fadiman's haunting account, written over a nine-year-period, of one very sick girl in Merced, California . . . What 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 another -- and 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 Fadiman's The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down and started calling friends . . . This is an important book." --Wanda A. Adams, The Honolulu Advertiser

"Anne Fadiman is a virtuoso. Her reporting is deeply revelatory, her writing is elegant, and her story is gripping. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is an unforgettable work of nonfiction literature." --David McClintick, author of Indecent Exposure

"This is a captivating, riveting book -- a must-read not only for medical professionals, anthropologists, and journalists, but for anyone interested in how to negotiate cultural difference in a shrinking world. Fadiman's ability to empathize with the resolutely independent Hmong as well as with the remarkable doctors, caseworkers, and officials of Merced County makes her narrative both richly textured and deeply illuminating. Sometimes the stakes here are multicultural harmony and understanding; sometimes they're literally life and death -- whether in wartime Laos or in American emergency rooms. But whatever the stakes and wherever the setting, Fadiman's reporting is meticulous, and her prose is a delight. From start to finish, a truly impressive achievement." --Michael Bérubé, author of Life As We Know It

"When a Hmong child and her parents encounter the American medical system, what takes place is a veritable explosion that reveals the weaknesses and rigidity of both systems. Ms. Fadiman's painstaking research and extraordinary writing skills make this into a compelling story that, once started, cannot be put down. And yet The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is also a unique anthropological study of our society, one that will endure and be referred to for years to come." --Abraham Verghese, author of My Own Country

"My hat is off to Anne Fadiman for a compelling piece of reportage. The pace and the color are brilliant." --Richard Selzer, author of Mortal Lessons

"So extraordinary is this tale, no conventional label comes to mind. It is a story of the tragedy of an ill child, a debate between two improbably clashing cultures, an essay on the limits of reason and authority. Anne Fadiman has yoked all three forms into a remarkable book which touches on every aspect of human capability and makes one feel at once more and less in control of life. This is a beautiful and haunting piece of work." --Roger Rosenblatt

"A vivid, deeply felt, and meticulously researched account of the disastrous encounter between two disparate cultures: Western medicine and Eastern spirituality, in this case, of Hmong immigrants from Laos.  Into this heart-wrenching story, Fadiman weaves an account of Hmong history from ancient times to the present, including their work for the CIA in Laos and their resettlement in the U.S., their culture, spiritual beliefs, ethics, and etiquette. A brilliant study in cross-cultural medicine." --Kirkus Reviews

"A riveting cross-cultural medicine classic." --Library Journal

"This book is a moving cautionary tale about the importance of practicing 'cross-cultural medicine,' and of acknowledging, without condemning, differences in medical attitudes of various cultures." --Publishers Weekly

"Ms. Fadiman tells her story with a novelist's grace, playing the role of cultural broker, comprehending those who do not comprehend each other and perceiving what might have been done or said to make the outcome different. . . . the value of Ms. Fadiman's book is its clarity about just how vast is the difference between Hmong animism and Western science. Her story is a gripping and poignant one. . . ." --Richard Bernstein, The New York Times Book Review