Excellently researched, well written, insightful & important

Fadiman writes an engaging case study of a Hmong family with an epileptic daughter, showing the challenges inherent to delivering Western-style medical care to a family deeply rooted in traditional beliefs. Fadiman convincingly makes the case that neither side is inherently at fault (although occasionally I cringe at a word or action on each side) but that the problem stems from "cross-cultural misunderstanding."

She delivers a satisfying mixture of telling the story of Lia Lee (the child with epilepsy) and of giving a broader view of Hmong history and culture. (I had no idea that the Hmong were recruited by the CIA to fight for the USA in Laos during the Vietnam war, for example.)

Another strength of the book is that Fadiman looks within the field of medical anthropology and actually finds suggestions and solutions for this problem. Make sure, even if you decide some of the history isn't for you, that you don't miss chapters 17 (The Eight Questions) and 18 (The Life or the Soul), as they do an excellent job of transforming an interesting narrative into an instructive case study.

As a side note, I read this while in the hospital recovering from malaria and was gratified to find that several doctors and nurses had read the book or at least parts of it. I strongly recommend this book.

Another excellent book by the same author is Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader, which is a light collection of essays on the love of books and reading. It's completely different territory, but Fadiman really shows her versatility.

The invisible wall

First of all, I have experienced similar frustrations myself, in dealing with patients of other cultures. Despite professional interpreters, it seems that there is an inpenetrable wall between members of some inmigrant cultures and US healthcare providers.
This book narrates one such conflict, between the parents and family of a little Hmong girl, affected by severe epilepsy, and the doctors and nurses at a teaching hospital in Mercer, California.
Sometimes without interpreters, sometimes with interpreters, the failure to "get through" to the family frustrated the chronically overworked residents of Mercer Hospital. The failure of the doctors and staff of Mercer Hospital to understand and agree with the family frustrated in turn the family of the little girl. Every single interaction between the two cultures, Hmong family on one side, and American medical establishment on the other, is interpreted by each side in the worst possible light.
There is a sense of inpending tragedy in the narrative, and as it is intertwined with the story of the Hmong people, and their exodus from Laos, one family's tragedy is inextricably merged with the tragedy of a people.
I learned from this book, but, unfortunately, I am not optimistic that I can communicate better with people with such different world views.
A must read by any member of the health professions that deals with non-European minorities. (And who doesn't nowadays?)

Fascinating and frustrating

Anne Fadiman manages to tell both sides of an extremely complicated story in this book, that of the struggle between a traditional Hmong family with a sick child and the scientific outlook of American medical doctors. The author deftly points out shortcomings of both sides (as well as the validity of both), particularly focusing on the communication problem between the two. She reserves ultimate judgment for the "real" culprit: unwillingness to understand the "other", something all too common in society.

Additionally, it is a fascinating account of Hmong culture, something I knew nothing about before reading this book. The accounts of Hmong immigrants and their culture reveal a unique and miraculously intact "lump" in the much-discussed "melting pot" of America.

Finally, reading this book made me painfully aware, as a white American, of my own personal biases and "truths" that I sometimes take for granted as universal. As globalization becomes the norm, this book is invaluable.