“The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down”

“The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down,” written by Anne Fadiman, won a National Book Critics Circle Award when it was published in 1997.  In a recent front-page New York Times article, Margalit Fox revisits the story on the occasion of the death of Lia Lee, the main character, and the effect the book has had on the delivery of medical services.  She writes, “A work of narrative nonfiction, Ms. Fadiman’s book is a cautionary tale about the cultural chasm between Lia’s family, with its generations-old animist beliefs, and her rationalist American doctors.  [It] remains widely assigned in medical schools and in university classes in social work, anthropology, journalism and other fields.”  Read the article here.