Travel to Asia

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

Format: Paperback
Author: Andrew X. Pham
ReleaseDate: 02 September, 2000
Publisher: Picador
Rating:

A Great Journey through Vietnam
Although his view is rather pessimistic, he gives a very thorough/descriptive account of his travels. I mainly bought this book to see another Vietnamese person's view of Vietnam and the struggle that one faces as a Vietnamese American (in terms of merging two cultures together). You almost feel as if you are there. He mixes in the stories from his childhood and present together. This book was a wonderful read through and through. An honest testament to the author's life journey and struggles. It maintained my interest throughout and gave me a different take on Vietnamese life/culture (although not an optimistic outlook as I have) although I think his pessimistic view on Vietnam changes near the end of the book.

Catfish and Mandala
It gives you information about all the countries that got in the war with Vietnam. I think Andrew Pham did a great job on writing Catfish and Mandala. It talks about An's conflicts with his parents and what he felt when his sister Chi died. This book lets you know what An went through when traveling from city to city. Andrew does good on describing the characters and the places where An goes to. He makes sure that everyone can understand what he is talking about.
He explains that when traveling he uses his bike which is the most interesting part. He explains that he meets new people on his way and describes the places that he goes through. He makes sure that he talks about what happened to him when he stayed in hotels. He makes the book interesting by describing everyhting he sees and everything he does.

Excellent!
I just plunge in. I've learned to read books and go on vacations with no expectations. This book is a wonderful trip and a fantastic read.

There are so many well written reviews here that are much better than I could write. There is one thing I want to mention.

One of the things I liked most about this book is that the author rises above the "poor me" that you often find in navel gazing books and books written by immigrants or children born to immigrants. He gives the facts and his thoughts and conclusions. There's no self pity which is refreshing. At the end when he realizes his roots aren't where he thought they were he is almost joyous. He went through hell, guilt, and disgust to reach that awareness and it's as satisfying to the reader as it was for him.

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