Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam

By: Andrew X. Pham

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Synopsis: “A brilliantly written memoir in which a young Vietnamese-American uses a bicycle journey in his homeland as a vehicle to tell his eventful life story.” —Kirkus ReviewsWinner of the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book PrizeA New York Times Notable Book of the YearWinner of the Whiting Writers’ AwardA Seattle Post-Intelligencer Best Book of the YearCatfish and Mandala is the story of a young man’s solo bicycle voyage around the Pacific Rim to Vietnam—an odyssey in pursuit of both his adopted homeland and his forsaken fatherland. Intertwined with an often-humorous travelogue is a memoir of war, escape, and ultimately, family secrets.Andrew X. Pham was born in Vietnam and raised in California. His father had been a POW of the Vietcong; his family came to America as “boat people.” Following the suicide of his sister, Pham quit his job, sold all of his possessions, and embarked on a year-long bicycle journey that took him through the Mexican desert; on a thousand-mile loop from Narita in South Korea to Kyoto in Japan; and, after five months and 2,357 miles, to Saigon.In Vietnam, he’s taken for Japanese or Korean by his countrymen; and in the United States he’s considered anything but American. A vibrant, picaresque memoir written with narrative flair and an eye-opening sense of adventure, Catfish and Mandala is an unforgettable search for cultural identity.