Anne Fadiman, author of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, which was assigned as summer reading to the Class of 2012, addressed Trinity’s incoming class at the opening of the fall semester. She urged students to reach outside their comfort zone and forge relationships with those around them, no matter their background. Fadiman focused on cultural boundaries, drawing examples from her book, and stressed the value of looking beyond the surface to overcome common hurdles in life and at Trinity.
"Do not retreat to your center of comfort at times of stress,” she urged the most diverse class in the College’s history at the Koeppel Community Sports Center.
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down received several distinguished literary awards, and is now required reading at many medical schools, and in anthropology, journalism, and writing programs. The non-fiction story chronicles the struggles of the Lee family, Hmong refugees living in Merced, California, who know very little English and have almost no understanding of American culture.
When the youngest in the family, three-month-old Lia Lee, needed to be taken to the hospital for seizures, and what would later be diagnosed as epilepsy, communication between American doctors and the Hmong-speaking family was almost impossible. The story chronicles the path of the family while dealing with grief, communication issues, and the blending of two very distinct medical cultures, while incorporating the viewpoint of the American husband and wife doctor team of Neil Ernst and Peggy Philp, who spent sleepless nights thinking about the young girl, who would be in a coma by the time she reached the age of five. Lia Lee recently turned 26 years old and still lives in a coma, but is lovingly cared for by her family, who has watched their daughter transcend the world through a translator in Anne Fadiman.
“Her parents hoped she would grow to be a healer and teacher,” Fadiman said. “I believe she is, at Trinity right now. I am just the conduit.”
