Leuk boek om te lezen tijdens de vakantie in Vietnam omdat veel beschrijvingen van het alledaagse leven nog herkenbaar zijn of juist inzicht geven. Helemaal leuk als de reis van de hoofdpersoon en die van ons samen vielen, zoals in Hue en Hoi An. Als boek zelf ook een bijzonder verhaal, maar niet altijd even goed of interessant opgeschreven. De beschrijving van de eerste helft van de reis voelde te kort.

This book was not what I expected, it's not really a travel memoir and the bicycle journey itself plays a very small part. There were several different threads running through it surrounding his family history in and escaping from Vietnam, his brother Minh's story and his return to Vietnam to revisit the places he knew when he was a child. It doesn't paint a pleasant picture of either America or Vietnam, in fact both are decidedly uncomfortable, which most likely comes from my privileged perspective, but also from the way he views both, he is particularly harsh about the Vietnamese people. It was an interesting read all the same.

Erg lastig om door de schabouwelijke vertaling heen te kijken, maar ervan uitgaand dat het origineel inderdaad "lyrisch" geschreven is, heb je hier een inkijk in de Vietnamoorlog, een geschiedenis van een migrantenfamilie en een fietsverslag in één boek. Alledrie die verhalen zijn ook erg interessant, maar het voortdurende switchen ertussen is niet altijd bevorderlijk voor het leesplezier.

I liked this book. I would have loved this book except that after "Eat, Pray, Love" and "Wild" it is one more memoir in which the author takes an exotic journey to "find himself."

In this case, Andrew Pham bicycles through Vietnam in search of his cultural roots. Along the way we are introduced to his family and a past that includes abuse, scandal, shame, and regret. Pham was a boy when his family emigrated from Vietnam via a rickety fishing boat in the middle of the night. He is in his mid- to late-20s when he returns retracing his steps to his eventual escape, trying to come to terms with the world he left behind.

The food scenes were among my favorite passages. Clearly food is a memory trigger for Pham and those passages were my favorite.

I wish I'd read this before "Eat, Pray, Love" and "Wild" because the author writes well and his story is compelling. (And I think I like this book better than either of those.) I hate to say that reading other books in the same genre diminishes this one because this one isn't like the others exactly, but it was close enough in theme to give me deja vu. And I don't think that's the kind of mandala the author was referring to in his title.