Review of 'The spirit catches you and you fall down' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
A well written book that reminded me in detail why some elements of cultural anthropology creep me the heck out. From a style of writing perspective, easily five stars, and the reason I rank it three instead is because of the moments of serious... not exactly dehumanization, but othering. Problematic in the way some Kipling is problematic, I suppose?
shrugs, waves hands loosely
Ended up wanting 27 showers and a brain bleach, but the details were meticulous and the writing excellent. In the preface, the author describes randomly playing tapes from conversations with a submissive translator as a touchstone, a good thing, and I recognize that the Hmong folks being recorded consented to the recordings, but the idea of that degree of invasiveness just makes my skin crawl.
