Explanatory
You're not going to find any mind-blowing prose styling in The Spirit Catches You. But hey, we ain't here for Shakespeare-style wordplay. Instead, author Anne Fadiman channels her energy into precise writing and a surprisingly complex chapter structure.
As a non-fiction writer with a journalism background, Fadiman values clarity above all else. She's not trying to wow you with fancy diction or jaw-dropping imagery. Instead, she sits back and lets her subject matter speak for itself. At times she's not even remotely present in the text. This lady keeps it simple, and she does it in a good way.
To make up for the simplicity in style, Fadiman complicates Lia's personal story by interspersing anecdotes from Hmong history. Remember when Nao Kao tries to grab Lia from the hospital and run away? That chapter is preceded by one called "Flight" that describes how the Hmong have been forced to flee for their lives countless times in their history.
See the connection? Pretty crafty, huh?
Beyond creating a neat little parallel, this reflects the Hmong ideas that "the world is full of things that may not seem to be connected but actually are" and "no event occurs in isolation" (2.2).
It's also a seemingly simple way to tell a surprisingly complex story. Or is that a surprisingly complex way to tell, well, an also surprisingly complex story? Either way, Fadiman juggles a lot of puzzle pieces and she does it with pizzazz.