The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
by Anne Fadiman
★ Top 25 book of 1997 · #12 on Best Books of 1997
A young Hmong refugee's epilepsy in Merced, California becomes a collision between her parents' spiritual understanding of illness and her doctors' medical one. The book follows both sides, from Laos to hospital wards, to show how two worldviews clash.
Best for: Readers curious about cultural conflict, medicine, and how belief shapes healing
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is #12 on BookWard's Best Books of 1997, out of 27 1997 books that cleared our data bar.
What The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is about
When Lia Lee was three months old, she had her first seizure. Her parents, Hmong refugees from Laos living in Merced, California, understood it as a spirit catching her and her soul wandering away. Her doctors ascribed her seizures to the misfiring of her neurons and prescribed anticonvulsants. With no Hmong interpreters at the hospital, neither side could really explain itself to the other, and the gap between them grew.
Anne Fadiman follows the family and the medical staff with equal care, and she gives the Hmong history behind their journey to America, including the 'Quiet War' in Laos. She argues that good intentions are not enough when two cultures cannot understand each other, and she never makes villains of either side. It will help doctors, nurses and students, and anyone interested in immigration, belief and how people care for their children.
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down on the Best Books of 1997
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down came out in 1997. Of the 27 books first published in 1997 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #12 on our Best Books of 1997 list.
Why it made the list: 230 readers have shelved it on Open Library; 21 are reading it right now. The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 1997 list
- Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Golden, #10
- Killing Floor Lee Child, #11
- A Walk in the Woods Bill Bryson, #13
- Sex and the City Candace Bushnell, #14
See all Best Books of 1997 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 1996 Best Books of 1998.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 195 want to read it, 21 are reading it now and 14 have read it, according to Open Library.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 44 | 55% |
| Reader love | 59 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 70 | 20% |
Questions about The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
When was The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down published?
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman was first published in 1997.
Was The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down one of the best books of 1997?
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is #12 on BookWard's Best Books of 1997, out of 27 1997 books that cleared our data bar. 230 readers have shelved it on Open Library; 21 are reading it right now.
Why is The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down on the Best Books of 1997 list?
230 readers have shelved it on Open Library; 21 are reading it right now.
More of the best books of 1997
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone J. K. Rowling, #1
- Rich Dad, Poor Dad Robert T. Kiyosaki, #2
- Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond, #3
- The Adventures of Captain Underpants Dav Pilkey, #4
- The Power of Now Eckhart Tolle, #5
- Into Thin Air Jon Krakauer, #6
See the full Best Books of 1997, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
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