book will bring you into another culture

I had to read this book for a class I'm taking this semester. This book is actually our university's "book of the semester. This book is very informative and will make you feel like you've stepped into another culture.

This book is about a clash between American doctors and the Hmong culture. This book is a true story about a little girl named Lia Lee. Her parents are refugees from the mountains in the country Laos. Although they moved to America, her parents still held onto strong religious and cultural values from back "home."

Lia Lee, the main focus of this story, was born in America. She was found to have epilepsy. This is when the controversy between the doctors and her parents start to take place over Lia Lee, although disagreements with doctors and Hmong patients had been taking place for as long as when the Hmongs first came to America.

This story is not just about American medicine, but about culture and the way that different people believe different things. The American doctors felt the need to help Lia. Her parents also wanted to help their daughter but not at the expense of her soul. The clash between cultures is apparent in this book. Anne Fadiman does a good job of portraying the Hmong culture along with the story line although it did get confusing sometimes.

The American doctors were taught that their medicine worked the best and the Hmong patients didn't want to disrupt their soul too much. They were worried about their next life. In the book, Fadiman talks about a man whose kids were taken away from him because some doctors found lesions, about the size of a coin, on his body. The man killed himself. It was later discovered that in the Hmong culture a coin doused in alcohol is placed on the children as a religious act.

This book is a great read.