This book created a clear image of post-war Vietnam, but while I enjoyed following Pham's travels, I never became truly engaged with the book. Although the author constantly reiterated his deep and troubling ambivalence about his native land, his struggle failed to grab my heart. The book contained some scenes that were theoretically poignant and wrenching, but I just didn't think Pham's writing was strong enough to break through the screen of journalistic observation and actually convey authentic emotion.

Wow, this was a really incredible book. Pham has a tight narrative that jumps timelines between the present, his childhood in Vietnam, and then his early life in the United States. While his main theme is, in my opinion, about the disconnect between the young immigrant and his homeland, he also dealt well with family relationships, particularly Vietnamese, immigrants and their new home, the spectacle of poverty, and the relations between the Vietnamese and Americans. There were many different times in the book where he'd write a passage so tight but so profound I just had to pause and reflect on it. There was so much that just exceeded the boundaries of the book and became universal.

Of all the themes, and keeping in mind the universality, I think his most profound was, what I will call, the roll of the dice. There were numerous times where Pham would meet someone his own age in Vietnam, usually poor, and when talking to them would be struck that the roles could easily have been reversed, and he was living in poverty talking to a returned immigrant. Recently I've been thinking about "America for Americans" and this entitlement mentality when, for the vast majority of Americans, they are Americans because of absolutely nothing they did. They happened to be born here and thus feel entitled to all it offers, when they could just as easily have been born to a different couple someplace else. This entitlement that we deserve the fruits of America's labor because of a fluke of birth is really not something I think holds much water. And so Pham recognizing that it was really through the efforts of his parents that he arrived in America really rang true for me.

Overall an excellent work, very easy to read, very enjoyable, and so highly recommended.

I have a thing against being a tourist. I like moving to new places, but I want to actually live there, not just see the surface of other people's lives from the outside looking in. Reading this book had me thinking about some of the limitations of that approach - how impossible it can be to become a local.

Our author takes a bicycle trip up the Western coast of the USA, through Japan, and then around Vietnam. Descriptions of his journey are interspersed with memories of his early childhood in Vietnam, and then growing up as an immigrant in the USA. And repeatedly we're reminded that the author is an outsider wherever he is - the names he's called, the way he's charged the extra "foreigner" fee throughout Vietnam, the way he spends most of his trip ill because his body is not used to the microorganisms in the food he's eating. We're reminded again and again that it doesn't matter if you know the language, have an understanding of the culture, were actually born and have family in that location... if you leave, when you return you will be different from everyone who stayed.

I think the fact that our author feels like an outsider makes him a better writer. He's able to notice and record all sorts of interesting details that probably wouldn't be noteworthy to someone surrounded by them on a daily basis. I think this holds true for the memoir part of the book as well - he's able to bring a more nuanced perspective to his memories because he can look at them through multiple lenses - as an American, as a Vietnamese.

Some of this book is rather dismal. Pham doesn't paint the most flattering picture of Vietnam and the Vietnamese people. As an outsider who can't really judge how accurate this is, I'm going to give him credit for not sugar-coating his impressions. And the book does end on a hopeful note, with a suggestion that he did learn something important from the whole ordeal.

Final verdict: I'd love to spend time in Vietnam, but after reading this book, I know I won't be doing it solo on a bicycle. I might even want to stick to the more touristy places. But I'm glad Pham did it, and wrote a book about it, so I can have a glimpse, through his eyes, of what it was like.

Andrew Pham has written an intensely honest book about his life in both Vietnam where he was born, and in the United States of America to where he and his family migrated to in the 1980s. Having graduated and worked as an engineer he decides to leave everything behind and commence a bicycle trip on the west coast of USA and from there fly to Asia, and then to Vietnam and travel the length of his country of origin on his bike. He relies on his personal skills to survive with little money, but it is not an easy trip. He encounters many difficulties and setbacks and this provides the framework for weaving together through flashback and circumstances the life of his family during the downfall of South Vietnam, the experiences of living within the Communist regime, and escaping as boat people and finally migrating. The book provides a great insight as to how difficult it is for a family to migrate and try to integrate into a totally foreign environment. There are some successes, numerous failures and at times a great sadness. A worthwhile read.

This was a moving and engaging memoir. Mr. Pham is very skilled at vivid description and is careful not to over-sentimentalize the often deeply personal subject matter. He is honest about his family and about his own feelings in a way that is highly admirable. His quest to explore his own identity is something that many people can relate to. Although his situation is rather specific, the book deals with themes that are fairly universal. I would strongly recommend this title to anyone that enjoys being entertained while having your own judgments logically challenged.

Deep and thought provoking

This book is far more than just a tale about traveling through Vietnam by bike. It is a beautifully crafted story that traverses time, countries, cultures, and historical events. It can be hard to believe that it’s not a work of fiction. At times funny, heartbreaking, suspenseful - but always moving.

Vietnamese-American Andrew Pham writes about his search for cultural identity in a book that is both a memoir and a biking travelogue. He remembers the fall of Saigon, his father's imprisonment in a communist reeducation camp, and the family's escape from Vietnam in a leaky fishing boat when he was a ten-year-old. After a stay in an Indonesian refugee camp, the family came to the United States and eventually settled in California. Although he recognizes the sacrifices made by his parents, he also recounts how the Pham children were subjected to his father's temper and beatings. The suicide of his transgendered sibling was the impetus for Andrew Pham's journey of self-discovery.

The author quit his job as an aerospace engineer, and traveled by bike up the Pacific Coast, through Japan, and up the length of Vietnam. He visited important places in his family's history and found them completely changed. While he had some enjoyable times, he also saw terrible poverty and extreme corruption. Dysentery was an unwelcome companion over part of the trip. He weaves together two story lines--about his family and about his bike trip.

He was called "Viet-kieu" (foreign Vietnamese) in Vietnam, a slur by people who envy his success. In America, he also feels like an outsider. He experiences survivor guilt, explores his roots, and feels the pull of two cultures. He still seems to be searching at the book's end--and maybe it will be a lifelong search--for who he is. Laced with adventure and humor, this was an engaging story that held my interest.

I found this memoir last week while browsing in a used bookstore. I'm ashamed to say this was my first book about the Vietnam War from the perspective of a Vietnamese. Pham's is the story of a refugee's return to Vietnam in the early 1990s, shortly after the country became open to tourists. Pham, as a young man in his 20s, takes a bike trip around the country hoping to gain insight into his past and to gain perspective on what he has come to view as the dysfunction that is his family. From the first,he is dismayed at the poverty he witnesses and resentful of the people, many of whom treat him as a rich traitor--a Viet-kieu-- who deserves to be fleeced like any rich tourist. In exquisite, often grueling detail, he weaves these travel stories with his memories--of his childhood years in Saigon,of his family's escape,and of refugeee life in California. Slowly, buried in the daily grind of surviving on the road, emerges the story of the particular tragedy of the Pham family. Awarded the Pacific Rim Book Prize of 1999, Pham's memoir is among the best I have read, both for its courageous honesty and engaging prose.

A gritty bike journey through the US West coast, Japan and finally, Vietnam. An (Andrew) bikes through all these places in search of himself, even though he is often more lost on his introspective journey than when he began. Interspersed with the tale of his travels are flashes to the past when he was a child in Vietnam before, during, and after the war, and as an immigrant in the US, ending up in Los Angeles.

An has a lot of self hate, and he seems to be searching for a way to like himself: if he can only find a reason to like the Vietnamese, he might learn to like himself. I'm not certain that ever happens, but he has a grand adventure trying.

All in all, very entertaining. I always wanted to know what would happen next and I found his ability to keep going despite his setbacks inspiring. I would have liked a bit more of an ending, but this is a memoir, so I'll have to live with reality.

"Forgiveness is a hollow gift when there is no mountain to move as compensation for the wrongs. For our truths change with time. There is noting else. No mitigating circumstances and no power to undo the sins. No was. Only is. Between us, there is but a thin line of intention."

An intimate meditation on family, heritage, poverty, trauma, and privilege, Catfish and Mandala is deeply moving. It as much a journey through grief and identity as it is a tour through Vietnam. Pham's prose is beautifully rich and dreamy, his grasp of language a delight, even when the subject matter is anything but.

The issues he addresses are immense and complicated, both deeply personal and international in scale. For this reason I think some of his conclusions can come across as adjacent to Western exceptionalism. However, I think it would be unfair to dismiss him as such. His reflections display a self-awareness about his Americanized perspective. Above all, it is important to consider this is a memoir of personal turmoil, not intended to reckon with the geopolitical history of a nation. His personal feelings of resentment and seclusion, and his ability to forgive, don't equate a universal statement.

Andrew X. (An) Pham is a great storyteller! Raw truth, and very intense! His story goes back and forth through 2 or 3 time periods is the only reason I didn't give it the 5-stars. I'm just not too fond of the switching back and forth too many times. But, every part of it was AMAZING!

This book caused a riff between his parents and himself for quite a few years because it also revealed a lot about his dysfunctional family, which is the very reason he needed to go back to his home country to find answers. You literally get the feel of the people and the culture of Vietnam in the 1990’s when he made his tour from Saigon to Hanoi, visiting the place he was born and lived, his family’s home in Saigon and his grandmother’s home in Phan Thiet, the prison where they were kept for a month by the Viet Congs, the refugee camp where he, his mom and siblings lived for 1-1/2 years while his father was in the harsh Viet Cong Prison Camp, and finally the birth place of his father in Hanoi. But, it was all gone. There was nothing left...out with the old and in with the new.

What he did find was extreme poverty, and beggars and swindlers everywhere he turned. At times he even felt ashamed of the behavior of his people, but then realized that this kind of extreme poverty really is all about survival. But, it also seemed that the Vietnamese had also lost their compassion for humanity in their attempt to survive in a communist society. Even though Vietnam was liberated from Viet Cong in 1977, it still remained pretty much a communist country.

America pulled out of the Vietnam War in 1972, and three years later, in 1975, Saigon fell to Viet Cong. Andrew was 8 years old when he saw people running for their lives as Viet Congs came in with their guns, killing people. Worthless money, bikes, food, anything you could imagine lay in the streets. People were running for the bay where American ships were waiting to take them out. His family packed and headed out of Saigon to Phan Thiet and lived with his grandmother for a while. It would be another two years before his father, who was captured and held in a Viet Cong prison camp, escaped and joined the family in Phan Thiet. He stayed hidden in the attic until they devised an escape plan to America.

Now an American Vietnamese, Andrew says he has faced racism here in America, growing up and while on the road with his bike. But, when he went back to Vietnam, it seemed there was even greater racism against him because the Vietnamese hate “Viet-kieu”...American Vietnamese traitors. Everyone tried to swindle more money from him, from eateries to motels, beggars, even the new “friends” sometimes demanded to be compensated. Especially bad were the cops in Vietnam. Extortionist to the Nth degree...much like Mexican cops in Mexico. It didn’t matter what it was. You were going to jail if you didn’t slip them some money. Period! Many times he had to use his wits to get out of some serious brawls with the drunken Vietnamese men. This was one crazy adventure!

I can’t wait to read some more of Andrew’s works, “The Eaves of Heaven: A Life in Three Wars” (2009). On top of majoring in Engineer, Andrew dropped out of that rat race for biking and writing. He was even a Food Critic for five years, and I have found that he has a small cookbook out called “The Culinary Odyssey: My Cookbook Diary of Travels, Flavors, and Memories of Southeast Asia” (2012). It was only $2.99, an ebook on Amazon. I am in the process of testing a few recipes now. So far, I'm very impressed but having a hardtime finding ingredients for a few of the recipes.

Today, in 2021, Andrew would be about 54 years old. I sure hope he is feeling more at home here in America by now. Wikipedia shows he has a web page and Facebook page, but it doesn’t look like he has kept either one of them up. You can still access his web page and read a little more about him and see a few more family photos here at:

https://web.archive.org/web/201111131...
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P. 203: "Egg-milk" - whisk 1 egg yolk with sugar until foamy (5 minutes), then pour hot soy milk over it in mug. A little Vietnamese girl was selling this on the side of the road in one of the towns. Andrew's mother used to make this for him when he was young and couldn't sleep. NOTE: I actually tried this with coconut milk instead of soy milk. I whipped the egg yolk with 2 tsps. white sugar for 5 minutes, then added hot 3/4 c. lite coconut milk. OMG! DELICIOUS!!! It's a keeper!