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Summary: Excellent Book
Review: I'm leaving in a a few weeks on a biking vacation to Vietnam. I picked up this book after reading other customer reviews on amazon.com.Catfish and Mandala is an excellent book. Pham's writing is intense and very interesting. It is one of those books you stay up all night to finish, despite having to be to work early the next morning. His book discusses a lot of the corruption that occurs for tourists of Vietnam. Although it made me a little apprehensive of my upcoming trip, being aware is much better than being naive.
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Summary: YOU MUST READ!
Review: This IS the best book I've read. I opened it up to read the first chapter and ended up reading practically read all of it! I couldn't tear myself away from the book; it felt like the pages sucked me in and i was experienceing what was happening. As a Vietnamese-American i can totally relate to everything in the book. I reccommend this to everyone, even if your not asian. Im sure that if you just give it a chance you'll feel the same. This book is so humorous, i found myself laughing aloud numerous times. The author's words, desriptions, and personification will impress you if you're looking for great literature.
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Summary: The best non-fiction I have read in years.
Review: When my book club picked this book, I didn't think it was my cup of green tea, but I really liked it. Mr. Pham is a gifted writer who will take you on a journey that will haunt your memory. It is really two stories in one, his bike trip around the Pacific Rim and the story of his family and thier escape from Vietmam. I hope the Mr. Pham writes more in the future.
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Summary: More than an adventure
Review: This review is not about what this particular book was about, but what my experience of reading it was like. I read this literary memoir on a long weekend away from home. My trip was not quite a vacation, it took place in in-between places. I was visiting Houston, Texas, where I grew up. I read it on the plane there, in a numbing hospital waiting room, in the bed where I slept as a child, outside in the 99 degree heat, and finished it, hurrying through the last few pages, just as the plane that took me back to my "real" life, landed at Chicago O'Hare. This book provided a lot of things for me - the feeling of being in an exotic place, and all the wonderfully elaborate descriptions of meals, extremes of weather, people met along the way that we expect from a travel memoir - a fascinating narrative about the Vietnamese immigrant community here in the US, something of particular interest to me because there are a lot of Vietnamese- Americans living in the Houston area - more specifically, the story of a family, complicated and messy and violent -- and the way one's personal history intersects with "big history." One thing I especially liked about this book is that it gives you so much more than just " a guy taking an adventurous bike trip to Vietnam to think about where he's from and find himself." The travel narrative is consistently interrupted, contextualized, with stories about the writer's parents before the war and his own stories of growing up. You're reading, reading, reading, to find out what happens in all these different strands of the book. What I found extra-special about this book is that you get a sense of the larger life of the author outside the book as well. He mentions some people only casually, you get a sense that he hasn't tried to cram everything in, there's the acknowledgement that one's life is a constant work-in-progress. So, the book reminded me of my own small trip, the ones we've all taken even if we're not on a "mad saga" of a bike trip, trips that make us think about what shapes us, our families, our Americanness, that make us a little brave, and ultimately, are nevertheless, still part of a longer journey. This writer is very brave and very good. Catfish and Mandala and Patricia Hampl's A Romantic Education are the best books of this type that I've read all year.
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Summary: A Vietnamese 1st born son's reflection
Review: From Henrylee166@hotmail.com I read this book with a swelling sea of emotions. During the 18 hrs that it took me to finish the book, I was entranced, revoked, sad, happy, reministic, and overcame by the power of the book. My wife (Chinese-Vietnamese-American) and I had numerous poignant conversations derived from this book. We talked about our own escapes from Communist VN, family, parents, brothers & sisters, and the difficulty & joy of coming & living & acclimating to America at a young age. For both of us, the book was an intense experience, a sea of self-discovery and self-reflection. After reading the book, I recommend the book to all my Vietnamese relatives and American friends. I share similar background as Andrew ... born in 1967, first born son, 3 younger brothers, having a father who fortunately refused to report in to "HOC TAP" (reeducation camp) in 1975, (his brother report in, and they kept him for 7 years. He was a broken man when they let him go in 1984. Our family escapes via Nha Be, Saigon, Nha Trang --- Manilla Harbor, Phillippine -- Huntsville, AL in June 1976, I was 9 at the time. In America, I feel the pain & joy & discovery as Andrew did as I struggled and landed a scholarship at the US Naval Academy, and later fail to hang on as the Navy downside in 1994. Sometimes I wonder if my heritage has something to do with the all-white world of US Naval Nuclear Submarine.....yes, I could be in serious denial. I can feel the ice and syrup water hit my own face as Pham pedaled up those California Northern Coast and those damn white-trash throw drinks at him and yell obscenities as they drove past. Bitter memories mixed with fondness brought tears to my eye as I read subsequent chapters, and Pham's book is the source that initiate it. Good & bad memories, I cherished them all. The burden of being a first born son is intense when both your parents work 2nd shift, 6 days/wk, 12 hrs day, and I come home with no adult supervision at age 10 with 3 younger brothers ages 8, 6, and 4 to tend to. I was responsible for numerous duties....in essence, I was their unofficial father, and I could remember how scare I was if something were to happen to my parents. My parents often asked " What are you going to do with your brothers' B's & C's report cards. Last year, they asked me "What are you going to do with your brother's pending divorce with an American wife?". My brother is now 28, college graduate, and very self-sufficient---------Fourteen years after leaving my home nest, and a bit wiser, I could only smile. (They later reconcile their different, and stay together....I am glad.) Andrew really brings home the sense of burden & joy of being a first-born Vietnamese son in this mix-cultured world. In the end, I am glad/bless to be a Vietnamese-American. I am so indebted to many American that had helped me....so many that have sheltered me during those lonely days as I wonder and perform my own self-discovery journey. The book is highly recommended! Something I would encourage my 2 young son to read as they get older. Pham, wherever you are, I wish you luck. The past is the past, only the present and future matter. Only you can determine what your future will bring, the atonement you may bring for you & your (sister's) brother's soul, and the forgiveness you can give yourself. God (Buddha) blesses.
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Summary: Cannot get it out of my mind
Review: I had been hearing about this book for some time through friends who are in the Vietnamese community. I live and work in Viet Nam as a nurse and I was also there in 1975 and came out on the final airlift with children from Viet Nam. I am sometimes reluctant to pick up books thinking... "same story" different author. This book captured me. I loved it so much that I gave it to a friend who is on his way to Viet Nam so that he could read it on the flight and give it to my daughter who lives in Saigon. I then ordered two more as gifts. This is a book that will stay in my mind and come back to me over and over again. I read it in one long setting without putting it down for more than a few minutes. I felt that I came to know Andrew Pham as I read it. I wish him well in his life!
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Summary: Books Like This Come Along Once in a Decade
Review: CATFISH AND MANDALA won the 1999 Kiriyama Literary Prize. The book is also a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, a finalist for the PEN U.S. West Award for Creative Nonfiction, and The Oregonian Regional Book of the Year. I wonder why Pham didn't get the Pulitzer or the National Book Award. If Robert Olen Butler got the Pulitzer for his so-so collection of short stories about Vietnamese refugees, Pham ought to be an obvious winner for a travel memoir that truly breaks the mold. Technically, Pham has discovered new grounds while poetically dealing with some profound issues about humanity, forgiveness and redemption. What I respect most about this memoir is that the author does not capitalize on "personal tragedies", but instead he uses the opportunity to search deeply for answers, truth and compassion. Yet, it certainly is no melodrama. In fact, the book reads like a literary thiller and a cross-cultural mystery (I finished the book in two sittings). It is the sort of book that will remain with its readers for decades if not longer. Despite all their good intentions, the raving newspaper reviews and the marketing efforts miss the point about CATFISH. It isn't just a book about travel or a memoir about a troubled refugee family. It is about one man's desire (any man's or woman's desire) and the choices he makes for his life. It is about the courage of letting go, of forgiveness, of starting over, of facing death, of accepting consequences. It isn't simply an issue of "being caught between two world." That is a cliche. Who among us have not been trapped between two places, two forces? Like the best literature, CATFISH AND MANDALA challenges us to read between the lines, to question our own reflections, and to hope.
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Summary: Travel along with Pham
Review: Pham, who bikes around Vietnam, travels back to his roots and takes his readers with him. Pham takes a journey into his life in Vietnam as a boy, how he and his family escaped to begin his life in America telling stories along the way. If you are interested in learning more about Vietnam, this is the book for you. Pham takes you through little towns in Vietnam and even introduces the readers to some very interesting dishes, that after finishing the book it almost leaves you homesick. Most importantly Pham describes his encounters in both America and Vietnam of being stereotyped with terrible names that would leave anyone feeling lost and confused. This book opened my eyes to just how much prejudice there is against another of the same nationality just because he/she was raised in America, but I finished with a smile knowing that I'm not the only one with this feeling of discplacement.
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Summary: What A Great Great Book!
Review: America is rich for its multi colors and texture of a "salad bowl". This book relates to me not only because I'm a 19 year old who grew up in the same neighborhood as Mr. Pham, but I'm confident that every 1st-generation immigrant of all racial background (ie. Irish-Americans, Japanese-Americans, Chinese-Americans...ect) were challenged with similar hardships and scramble for identity when they first arrived in America. This book is not only an allaying pill for every lost Vietnamese-American, but it will suit everyone of all ethnicity who's interested in walking the shoes of their father and finding their own roots. From humanly topics of a devastating war to internal family conflicts to a delapidated society washed of morals and basic human rights, I said "amen" to the almighty for giving me such an easy life after reading this breath-taking book. :)
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Summary: A truly outstanding book
Review: Catfish and Mandala is the best book about Vietnam I have read in decades. It is humorous, witty, moving, but also very disturbing. Andrew Pham talks about his family's escape from Vietnam, his father's time spent in re-education camp, his family in the U.S., his sister's suicide, his brothers' homosexuality. But best of all is his bicycle travelogue in Vietnam with little money. It's a truly refreshing book, completely different from the tales that I heard from my Vietnamese friends who came back and travelled in air-conditioned cars. And even though I want to believe them, somehow their stories contradict with the experiences I had while living there. Andrew's book is a rare gem that explores the stories behind that are not readily available to the wide-eyed tourists in sanitized packaged tours. In Saigon, Andrew broke down sobbing after a beggar who resembled his old girlfriend pleaded for the leftover food. While travelling to visit his father's old prison, he was left with packages of smuggled tobacco while the police was searching the bus and demanding bribery. And in Vung Tau, he befriended a beautiful young girl who worked in one of those "embracing beer" halls. She was begging him to take her to the U.S. Even if he didn't love her, he could pretend to marry her so he could take her out. "My children, grandchildren, great grandchildren will thank you everyday for the rest of their lives," she said. When he refused, she just left and the next morning he saw her hand-in-hand with a white tourist who might be easier to be persuaded. The trip continued as he came back to his hometown Phan Thiet and then went up North to Ha Noi and beyond. In each city that he visited, there are tales of deception, duplicity, trickeries by the locals in an attempt to get the money out of the tourists' pockets. But there are also tales of Vietnam's beauty and the enduring lives of the Vietnamese people. A local policeman knocked on his room's door at night pretending that Andrew needed a better place to sleep because he was a Viet-Kieu, but his true intention was to get some money out of this poor guy. A prostitute knocked on his door at night offering her services without knowing that he was deadly exhausted. Perhaps a local police was nearby. If a customer refused, she would stripped herself naked and scream for help. The local police would run in and arrest the tourist accusing him of raping or having sex with a prostitute. Either way, it is a loosing proposition since the tourist had to pay $50-$300 U.S. fine. In Hue, Andrew thought that he had found a true friend who took him around in his broken cyclo. His friend's heart-wrenching stories of having to support a wife and three kids moved Andrew deeply that he gave his friend a lot more money than what was needed. But later he found out that his friend was not really married, but he just told the stories to get Andrew's money. In Hoi An, we see Andrew with a couple of Western tourists. A German man sat sadly alone in a pile of rubble. He was shocked to find out that he had paid $100 U.S. to rent a car to see the Cham ruins, but at the last moment, he was told that the car had broken down and he was not going to get his money back. And Cham's ruins are nothing than a pile of rubble. "Cham's ruins in Thailand are a thousand times more beautiful than this and I didn't have to pay $100 to see it," lamented the man. Next to him was an Italian young woman who broke down crying after her camera was confiscated by the guards. She couldn't take modern Vietnam anymore. I am particularly moved by this chapter and while reading it, I keep wondering about the future of Vietnam's tourism. "Is this how we treat the foreigners who come in our country yearning to learn more about our culture and history?" Near the end of his book, we meet Andrew's friend Calvin -- a professional guide tour in Vietnam. Calvin's appearance is impeccable from the outside. He earns a lot more money than the average Vietnamese. He is the epitome of success. But while he was drunk, the readers get a peek inside Calvin's heart that is very disturbing. It is for sure that he would never reveal this thought to any of the tourists or Viet-Kieu whom he takes around in Vietnam. He told Andrew through the cloud of alcohol. "Sometimes I feel like a pimp," he said. He continued, "The tourists wanted me to take them to the poor part of Saigon, so I took them there; they flinched at our poverty..." Calvin also offered us an opportunity to see how the local Vietnamese see the Viet-Kieu -- a truly honest and down-to-earth viewpoint even though it is also very disturbing. After reading Calvin's thoughts, I am not too sure if it is a good idea for a Vietnamese to go back there. The only really minor points in Andrew's book that need some clarifications is the part when he mentions about Hanoi's quarters and he says that it is the legacy from the French era. Somehow I always think that these specialized quarters of Hanoi predated the French. Regarding Uncle Ho, perhaps Andrew didn't know that he actually had multiple wives in many continents and he wasn't single because he was patriotic as described by the Communist propaganda. From the other books that I have read, he even stole his best friend's wife. Catfish and Mandala has won numerous praises from the New York Times, Elle, the Chicago Tribune, etc. His book is an extraordinary book in any way. It deserves 5 stars. It's a must-read for any foreign tourists who want to go to Vietnam, the Viet-Kieu who contemplate of going back there, and anyone else who wants to learn more about modern Vietnam. Two Thumbs Up!
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