I am a huge fan of travel stories anyway, and Catfish and Mandala was not only an educational journey through Vietnam, it was well written as well. Pham writes with beautiful language that describes his environment so clearly one can almost smell the forest or the stench as the case may be.

Starting in the Bay Area, Pham rides his bicycle to find himself, first in Mexico, then up the California Coast, and finally in Vietnam. Interwoven with his adventures are stories of his past, revealing why it is so important to him to find his identity as a Vietnamese American, a Viet-kieu. The people he meets along the way, the family ties he rebinds, and the memories of his early years all add to the growth Pham experiences on his journey.

I chose to read this book because I am planning to travel to Vietnam and I wanted something more than a Vietnam War novel. This book definitely fulfilled that desire and even though Vietnam has doubtless changed in the last 20 years since Pham went on his journey, it is nevertheless an inspirational tale and a window into what was and what can be in Vietnam.

From the only two english books available, I picked this one up from a beach library on the last stage of a two week North to South trip through Vietnam.

Attracting me was this unique chance of having an insider's view of Vietnam as the author, a Vietnamese-born refugee in American soil tells his own story and dissects Vietnam through eyes already accustomed to western culture.

And it delivers. The first half of this book tells the compelling story of one of the thousands of the so called "boat people": South Vietnamese families which, due their connection to the American backed Saigon Regime or general unwillingness to live under northern communism, fled the country in whichever way possible.

In between this narrative we follow the main character's desire to connect back with its past. The struggle of his foreign-born Vietnamese family in adapting to America and his desire to get to know the now forgotten motherland by biking all the way from California to Vietnam.

Apart from the initial memories, there is no additional plot guiding the narrative in this book. After a certain point, the narrative serves the reader only superficial photographs of different Vietnamese cities as seen through eyes that can no longer relate and the chit-chat of volatile random encounters.

The first half of this book left me glued to the pages and unable to let this book down. The later half became an effort employed just for the sake of finishing what started as such a promising book.

As a story, it gives voice to all the migrants in this world who effectively, in one way or another, might find themselves as Citizens of No Country: too disconnected with their motherland to relate, too marginalised in their adoptive country to truly feel at home.

Ugh. I hate to end my reading year this way, but what is this book.

I was expecting to cycle from the US to Vietnam, but actually, there are a few planes being boarded here, and while that's OK, it didn't make a very interesting journey.

This centres around a young man whose family left Vietnam for the United States after the war and his epic return to the fatherland.

While the back story of the family is fairly interesting, the journey is a bit of a flop.

Two stars.

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!

3.5 stars. I appreciate the heart and soul Mr. Pham put into writing this book. However, it was at times quite negative towards Vietnam and the Vietnamese. It's a perspective I don't agree with. I spent a month in Vietnam at the beginning of 2020 (pre-COVID), and it seems to me the place has changed a lot in the 20 years since Catfish and Mandala was published. Still, I found Andrew X. Pham's memoir to be a fascinating look into how Vietnam's national psyche has evolved. I admire how far the country has come in 2 decades. I realize that I am looking at all of this from an outsider's perspective, so it would be interesting to hear what the author has to say about Vietnam in 2020.

This emotional, action-packed journey will make you re-evaluate your own citzenship, your culture and your beginnings. The story also details the gritty (sometimes frightening) unseen world of local Vietnam. A must for anyone traveling to the country or coming back from a trip! I'm left with more respect for refugees and for those who stay and somehow thrive in the dark, unlivable impoverished corners of our world.

Pham’s personal odyssey and search for identity is one of the more poignant travel adventure novels I’ve come across. We undervalue the trauma of the refugee experience and the emotional and physical displacement it inflicts on survivors. While many keep their head down and plow ahead in their new world, Pham navigates through the family wreckage. He escapes by searching and seeking, arriving where it all began, back in Vietnam. The cultural imbalance is a familiar theme, but his personal challenges, the intensity of the journey, and the honesty of the prose makes this a fantastic read.

The author explores themes of identity, family, and the culture of his birth country of Vietnam via a solo bike trip around the Pacific Rim some twenty-odd years after the fall of Saigon and his family’s escape to America. Pham experiences life in the US as an outlier; will he discover acceptance as a Viet-Kieu in the country of his birth and come to terms with family tragedies and secrets? The reader comes right along for the ride through Pham’s imagery-dense (but not flowery) writing; one can easily picture the landscapes (rice paddies, rutted roads, sparkling beaches) and catch the aromas (fish sauce, marketplaces, sketchy hotel rooms) Pham experiences. I’m left wondering about the changes in that country since the book’s publication in 1999; hopefully, the poverty and desperation of citizens found during Pham’s excursions are much less common in today’s economic powerhouse of Vietnam.

This is not a travel book. It’s a very personal journey by the writer who left Vietnam after a harrowing escape shortly after the capture of Saigon City by the VC. With his journey across the sea and subsequent asylum in US, and settling in California surrounded by relatives and the Vietnamese diaspora at large, his family go through many changes, striving to achieve the American dream. Yet despite attaining financial stability and educational achievements, An continues to feel unsettled. A tragedy within the family which is never spoken off, hangs like a dark cloud over all of them.

An decides to explore his birthplace and various significant towns and villages in Vietnam. He finds a mixed response; occasionally hailed as a lucky escapee, pressed with questions about America and its riches, often derided with being a Viet-kieu, a coward and traitor of his homeland. An sees the life that could have been his in small towns and villages where people have little, but seem content but he also sees people who are often striving for more opportunities in businesses and the ugly hand of corruption in everyday transactions.

However this journey must have been taken 20-25 years ago, and Vietnam as a country made great economic strides; there has been much development; new highways, digital connectivity, tourist boom and much consumer confidence. The young are learning English to keep up with global market forces, but America is no longer seen as a shining beacon.

There are also businesses and luxury homes set up by Overseas Vietnamese who have chosen to invest in Vietnam. Hence one sees many modern shinny homes doting the smaller towns, while traveling from Hanoi to the outskirts of the city.

An’s sentiments probably reflect many immigrants who are displaced and face many questions of identity- but often find the answers within themselves. His book is well written for such a difficult personal journey.

3,5 *

Came for the Vietnam travel story. Stayed for the great thoughts, feelings, and insight on being Vietnamese-American

An intriguing look at An Pham's process in coming to an understanding of himself as Vietnamese, American, Vietnamese American. His bicycle trip through Vietnam pushes the narrative of self, but is punctuated with remembrances from his early boyhood in Vietnam, his escape with his family, and his life in America. Great sense of humor, and some beautiful descriptions of scenery. There's a transgender intrigue here too, a sad one, in that the eldest child is alienated from the family at a young age, and the many missing years are left unspoken when Chi returns Minh, now a man. Pham centers that aspect of the family's lack of full acceptance of Minh, but doesn't seem to understand that the almost unbroken references to his "sister Chi" are an assault on Minh's (gender) identity, though Pham is sensitive -- with good reason! -- to assaults on his own (ethnic) identity. (I'm not giving anything away in disclosing the transsexual subplot: its basic contours are obvious from the dedication and the first few pages.) I found tiresome the extent of Pham's observations about his dislike of many of the Vietnamese people he encountered on his trip; a few would have been enough to illustrate that aspect of his struggle with his identity. At times I found the transitions (no pun intended) jarring, and I really wish memoirists wouldn't conclude with "profound" discoveries, but would integrate their self-realizations more thoroughly into the text.