As part of the "Encountering Controversy" Project, Alaska Pacific University and UAA have selected "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" by Anne Fadiman as the Book of the Semester for Fall 2006. A different book will be selected for discussion in the Spring 2007 semester.
"The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" tells the story of Lia Lee, the infant daughter of Hmong immigrants in California, who was born with a severe seizure disorder, known in the West as epilepsy and to Lia’s parents as qaug dab peg (“the spirit catches you and you fall down”). From the moment Lia arrives in a California emergency room, cultural differences and linguistic miscommunication begin to drive a rift between Lia’s loving parents and her well-intentioned doctors. The tragedy that unfolds opens the door to conversations about cultural difference, the modern immigrant experience, and the limits of Western medicine.
This book won the National Book Critics Circle Award, and has served as Book of the Year or Freshman Experience book at many campuses across the country. It's balanced discussion of the strengths, shortcomings, and best efforts of Western medicine and traditional belief systems allows students and faculty to engage in "difficult dialogues" about their own beliefs and experiences.
Author Ann Fadiman holds the Francis chair for non-fiction writing at Yale University. She is past editor of the intellectual and cultural quarterly The American Scholar, a former writer for Life magazine and Editor-at-Large for Civilization. Her books include The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down and Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader.
