Endeavoring even more on my cultural awareness path, I selected a novel by Anne Fadiman titled, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. The story deals with a Hmong family living in Merced, California in the 1800s. This Hmong family has a daugher diagnosed with epilepsey who very often is treated at the local hospital. However, the Hmong do not speak English and the English speaking doctors do not speak Hmong. Rarely, there is a Hmong translator around to assist in a common understnding among the two parties. Lia, the epileptic Hmong child's seizures begin to occur more often. Thus causing the communication barrier becoming more and more of an issue.
        The doctors do their best to teach Lia's parents how and when to give Lia her medications to prevent the seizing. However, the doctor's fail to realize that Hmong tend to use herbal medicines. Also, the Hmong do not know hot to tell time in America, thus, not allowing Lia's receival of medication times to be exactly correct. When Lia acts strange on a medication or does not seem to help, her parents will stop giving her that medication. If a certain medication seems to really work, they will double it.
        The doctors are frustrated with the Hmong family and the Hmong family is frustrated with the doctors. Both failing to recognize each other's cultures and beliefs, the solution to Lia's medical condition is no where near being solved.
        I can not wait to read further and discover the solution to Lia's illness through the collision of these cultures.

        I picked the novel, The Joy Luck Club, for the sole reason being that as I get older I become more and more interested in other world cultures. And I thoroughly enjoyed this book and gleaned much from it. Essentially, the book is about 4 immigrant women from China. The book is broke into short stories about their lives, and each is told in their point of view. Revealing the women's struggles, hopes, wishes and fear, Tan crafted a beautiful novel that goes far beyond a perspective of a different culture. The four women's American-born daughters tell parts of their lives and stories as well. Along the way, the reader realizes that a different culture is only a barrier because of language. These women deal with everyday issues just like American women. Nothing is that different except their beliefs; they still have the same issues that every person can relate to. This novel forces the reader to think, "Wow that could happen to me," or "What would I do in this situation?" Those questions become possible because the women and their daughters deal with marital affairs, death, fitting in, war, faith, fate, food, and loving family and friends. It's chalked full of drama. Sometimes the drama gets in the way of the truer meaning: understanding our own parents.
        For the most part, the four American-born women do not understand their mothers and think their Chinese reasoning is illogical and unnecessary. What these four women ended up realizing was that their parents are real people too. They possess wants, dreams and desires. They just act in a different way. That realization completes the focus of the novel.
        The main character, Jing-Mei, is American-born. Her mother, Suyuan Woo, has just passed away. Following her death, Jing-Mei finds out that she has half-sisters in China. Suyuan Woo had to leave them while she was fleeing to get away from the war. The sisters are now trying to contact their true biological mother. Unfortunately, she has already passed. Jung-Mei learns from her aunts that her mother never stopped looking for the twins. She would ask her friends in China to be on the lookout for her twins, hoping someone would discover them after all of these years. Suyuan's only wish was to find them once again. Sadly, she died right before they sent a letter to her. Jing-Mei and her father go to China to inform them of the death and to meet their family members for first time. The unique part about this is that Jing-Mei discovers more about her mother through meeting these twins. Suyuan Woo's wish has finally happened and Jing-Mei finally understands her mother, "And although we don't speak, I know we all see it: Together we look like our mother. Her same eyes, her same mouth, open in surprise to see, at last, her long-cherished wish" (288). I love this quote because even though it is not directly stated, it is inferred that Jing-Mei finally feels close to her mother. This was something she was striving for throughout the whole novel.
        I would definitely recommend this book to anyone. It's extremely short, but once started it is hard to put down. You will not be disappointed in taking extra time to follow these eight women on their life journeys.