Other Women's Stories: What I'm reading this week (8/26/19)

I'm taking off Monday and Tuesday from work before the fall semester begins for my annual August Readcation. Work has been so crazy lately, I'll be glad to sleep in past 5:30am and read at will. No emails, no phone, no annual reports. Heaven.

Last week I finished:

Perhaps my perceptions of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down are skewed, but in this area of the country (Wisconsin/Minnesota), this book is everywhere. You can't go to a Goodwill or used bookstore without running into seven or eight copies. It seems everyone in these parts has read it. I first read it so long ago my copy is a first edition hardcover. It was published in 1997. I read it at about the time I taught summer English classes to Hmong students in the Upward Bound program. But it had been nearly 20 years since my first reading, and I was interested to see how it held up to re-reading. This is the true story of a Hmong refugee family in California whose daughter, Lia, suffered seizures. American doctors, of course, treated her epilepsy disorder with lots of powerful drugs, never once discussing with the parents, who could not speak English, nor read Hmong or English, how they would like to proceed. There was a distinct lack of both hospital translators (though many medical terms and ideas wouldn't translate into Hmong anyway) and desire to understand the parents of the child. The parents, for their part, were uninterested in following doctors' orders and decreased dosages or discontinued drugs at will. They believed their daughter's condition was caused by a dab stealing their daughter's spirit, and although the condition was frightening, it was also revered in Hmong culture, and many folks with epilepsy become shamans, a mark of honor for the family. This is a heartbreaking story of phenomenal miscommunication and cultural insensitivity on the parts of all involved. The doctors, who were entrusted with the care of the child, tried to do their best, but the parents distrusted the doctors and Western medicine (especially drugs that need to be taken for long periods of time) so much they disregarded the doctors, who in turn felt disrespected and frustrated. Why work so hard to help the child when the family will just disregard instructions anyway? The family straddled the line between American medicine and their own spiritual/cultural beliefs of shamanism and animal sacrifice. They, too, were trying to treat Lia the best they knew how. Being a person of faith who does not use medicine, I found the doctors' absoluteness when it comes to Western medicine mindboggling. But I also found it interesting that not once was the idea discussed that the thing will work for you which you put your faith in, whether it's medicine, God, or animal sacrifice. I was also interested that never once was it discussed that mixing medicine and spiritual practice seldom leads to desirable results for the same reason. Although Fadiman is obviously biased toward the Hmong, she does an exceptionally good job of researching and explaining the Hmong, their culture and beliefs, and Lia's story. She became very close to the family in her years interviewing them (they worked through a translator), and she gives a sympathetic view of the Hmong experience in America. I would love for her to revisit the topic and write a follow-up book, now that it's been more than 20 years, and another generation of Hmong children have come of age in America. I'd be fascinated to read it. While some of the information is dated (she talks about President Clinton's welfare reform of 1996, at least I think that's what she's referencing, as something that might come to pass), the heart of the story, two cultures clashing and the need to understand and sympathize with cultural differences, is still playing out daily in America. It was a fascinating re-read, and I recommend it to anyone looking for a wonderfully rich picture of the refugee experience. My rating: 4 stars.

I love and am amazed by Bill Bryson's writing. Either he spends years of his life falling down research rabbit holes, or he has a crack team of researchers. Either way, he turns out some fascinating stuff. His The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way is the story of the English language. He covers British English, American English, and English as spoken by those in other countries both as a first language or as a foreign language. It was published in 1990, so his research is a bit dated, but it hardly seems to matter. I listened to this one, a bit concerned that audio was not the way to read a book on linguistics, but I was wrong. I think I enjoyed it more on audio than I would have in print--with the exception of the narrator spelling things out. I've never been good at deciphering someone's rapid-clip spelling at me. True to form, Bryson was equal parts intellectual and humorous, and my favorite thing about Bryson's books are all the factoids, and this one was full of them. While it wasn't my favorite of his books, it was a solid one. My rating: 3.5 stars.

This week I'll finish:

This has been a fun read. I'll review it next week.

I'm inadvertently reading:

I ran upon this one at work, and I started reading, and I guess I'm now kind of reading the book. Since it's graphic, I can finish it quickly, freeing up a few days while I'm on Readcation to start something I want to start right now. Win-win.

Up next:

This is what I want to read on Readcation. I was so pulled in by the pages I read while vetting it that I've thought of little else than continuing it.

My evening reads, to be finished this week: