http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/keyword/critique Inquiries Journal provides undergraduate and graduate students around the world a platform for the wide dissemination of academic work over a range of core disciplines. en-us Fri, 03 Apr 2026 14:39:52 -0400 Fri, 03 Apr 2026 14:39:52 -0400 http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/174/in-defense-of-the-spirit-of-an-author-on-anne-fadimans-the-spirit-catches-you-and-you-fall-down By Brian Richards - Anne Fadiman’s The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures is a non-fiction exploration of culture and medicine that tells the tragic story of the Lee family and their daughter Lia, an epileptic Hmong girl. The book has been heavily criticized for various biases, sympathies, and idealization. Overlooking these criticisms blindly believes one author’s words, but accepting them fully misinterprets the entire text. The most beneficial reading of Fadiman’s The Spirit requires seeing the work as a writer’s... Fri, 19 Feb 2010 09:02 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/174/in-defense-of-the-spirit-of-an-author-on-anne-fadimans-the-spirit-catches-you-and-you-fall-down