It was a little odd reading Pham's books in reverse chronological order, not because of the story lines but because of the writing style. Eaves of Heaven shows signs of maturity that aren't as apparent in Catfish and Mandala. This slight difference caused me to waver between four and five stars.
In the end I felt Catfish and Mandala met all the criteria I require for a five star book; it's very well written, the narrative is interesting, and it affects me in ways that stay with me over time. Even though it's only been a few days since I finished it but I'm certain there are aspects of the book that are permanent in my mind and will flashback as circumstances dictate.
A bike tour of Vietnam is as a backdrop for the Pham family's epic journey through a harrowing boat escape from Vietnam, being sponsored by a Baptist community in Louisiana and finally settling in Northern California.
In the story we learn about the difficulties with being a Vietnamese American in a U.S. that still had a lot of post-war bitterness and then seen as Viet Kieu (the term in Vietnam for those who left after the war and settled in America. It's not considered a complimentary term. At times it's used as it is strictly defined with no insult intended, at other times it is meant as an extreme insult; like traitor). When Andrew (An) returns as an adult to bike from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi his tour seems a way of working out the issues associated with permanent displacement.
The family dynamics that are explored bring a lot to the story as well. There are aspects of tragedy (as is the case with his sister Chi) and his father drove himself and the kids very hard (many would say to a fault). There was a lot of bitterness and resentment but in the end, despite all the differences, I was touched by the family rather than critical of them. When you know the parent's background (which is written about in Eaves of Heaven) I think you tend to be a little less critical.
I think this would be a great book for a book club discussion.

though i appreciate pham's prose and his frankness in airing out his family's dirty laundry, i think i would've liked this more if it were fiction. but b/c it's real life, and there's only so much self-reflection, vulnerability, and even embellishment a writer can and is willing to share, the narrative is limited to what "actually" happened and what figurative (or philosophical/moral/existential) meanings we can retroactively derive from and attribute to what are mostly random occurrences in the grand chaos of life. and i'm not sure i agree with or like the conclusions pham came to throughout and at the end of his two-wheeled journey: a concoction of two parts self-loathing, two parts "not asian enough but not american enough either" identity issues, one part passive support of western hegemony, a hefty spoonful of entitlement, and a dash of misogyny that left a lingering, sour taste in my mouth.

also, i think we, as immigrants and their descendants, need to get past this delusion of "finding one's cultural identity" by returning/visiting the motherland. culture, identity, and self are not stagnant things with a singular source; they are ever-changing and adaptive, a tangled web of many threads. pham wanted a nice little bow to tie off his complex, multi-faceted struggles and tried too hard to make one. sometimes there isn't a revelation at the end. in real life that's okay.

A good "travel with a stranger who becomes a friend" experience offering a bumpy but authentic eye witness experience of Vietnam. A personable addition to anyone's immigrant experience collection recounting the pleasures and pains of going home again and bearing the burdens, and joys, of home with you through life in a new place.

This memoir has a lot packed in it. It tells the somewhat common story of those who are caught between identities as immigrants, in this case neither wholly Vietnamese nor, as a non-white immigrant, never fully accepted as truly and “American.” But it tells it in his particular way and situation. It tells the story of his particular dysfunctional, yet in other ways, typical Vietnamese family. It also tells the story of Vietnam. And at the same time, it is his travelogue of his crazy adventure. It does not paint a particularly flattering picture of Vietnam (nor his family), and yet he does manage to do it in a caring way. I enjoyed the book, but somehow it would not be one I highly recommend. I liked really it, but yet I did not find it that powerful. And one nit pick, was that while I do not mind the common style of chapters jumping back and forth in time, what I did mind what the chapter titles did not clue you in to when, where and who you were now at, and it could take a paragraph or two to figure it out. Not a big deal, but still a little annoying.

The book failed to grab me. After I've gotten over the half way point, I was unsure why it was still going. The narrator is unlikable, he touches on serious and interesting issues, but seems to lack insight to really dissect those issues. This book is nothing more than his self-indulgent account of drinking and whoring in Vietnam, while despising its inhabitants for being poor. His treatment of women as objects and light view of prostitution did not help my enjoyment either. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this book.

Catfish and Mandala is a lovely book. I read it slowly so it wouldn't end. From the first page, I was engrossed in the story of one man's attempt to make sense of his past and his present by integrating the two parts with a return trip to Vietnam, twenty years after his family fled. A gifted storyteller, Pham describes unflinchingly the details of his childhood in Vietnam, family life in a traditional Vietnamese family, the struggles of being an immigrant in southern California and the poverty and corruption and sweetness of modern Vietnam. Reading this account while traveling through Vietnam as a first-time visitor, it feels like Pham got it just right. He describes his adventures as a viet-kieu (expatriated Vietnamese) with the voice of an insider looking at it from the outside - and the result is very compelling. I was happy to find it among the collection of badly photocopied books available from a Hanoi street vendor...

More memoir than travelogue, the author struggles with the burdens of being an immigrant to America (a refugee from Vietnam), a violent old-fashioned and tormented father (who survived the reeducation camps), a transgendered sister who killed himself, and two gay brothers. This is not a happy, lighthearted tromp to an idyllic foreign country described by a wide-eyed American tourist. The family history and personal memoirs are interwoven with the tale of his soul-searching bicycling trip through modern Vietnam. The work is that much more fascinating in its unflattering description of the Vietnamese and their country. Not an easy read in some respects, but revealing, not only about the country, but himself. I will be mightily unhappy if this turns out to be a work of fiction, like so many other recent nonfictional accounts. There is so much detail, little beautiful nuggets. I would think it a good book for travelers thinking of tackling Vietnam, or any Third World country. Much animus is aimed at the lazy, corrupt officials (especially the police), who siphon off money from tourists and citizens alike.

This book made me feel really thoughtful and introspective. An's cycling adventures reminded me of my own cycling adventures in Asia (except his experiences were 100x more scary and painful). And his brutal honesty about feeling disconnected to his Vietnamese roots was something that connected with me on a deep level. Pham writes in a way that paints vivid imagery and deep emotion, and I feel like his story and the story of his family will linger in my mind for a long time. Overall, the story is really sad, but I loved the experience of reading it.

Catfish and Mandala 12122007 by Andrew X. Pham
Story of Vietnamese immigratant that goes back to Vietnam and bicycles to Hanoi. Nice story.

andrew pham is a really great writer!! i honestly wasn't expecting his writing to be as good as it was. i also didn't realize how multifaceted the story would be, i kind of just assumed it would strictly be about the experience of biking through vietnam. it actually had a lot of really interesting and emotional family history intertwined with the trip itself. a very honest account of his feelings about being vietnamese-american/being around vietnamese people. the story perfectly culminated in a really beautiful/painful conversation.

Quite an eye opening book. Written by a man whose family escaped Vietnam when he was 10 years old. He returns a couple decades later to visit and see his homeland. Unfortunately while he doesn't feel at home in the United States, he also didn't find a home in Vietnam. The book goes back and forth between his journey on his bike through Vietnam and past memories growing up in Vietnam and the United States.

Lets just say that the author did not have the greatest experience on his return to Vietnam for many many reasons. I expected a more romantic account of his return home and did not get that at all.

My mother-in-law has met and continues to interact with Vietnamese Americans through her work and she said reading this book really helped her understand them.

While I was reading it I expected to give it 5 stars, but it dragged on a little bit too much for me.

2.5 stars