Catfish and Mandalais the story of an American odyssey—a solo bicycle voyage around the Pacific Rim to Vietnam—made by a young Vietnamese-American man in pursuit of both his adopted homeland and his forsaken fatherland.
Andrew X. Pham was born in Vietnam and raised in California. His father had been a POW of the Vietcong; his family came to America as "boat people." Following the suicide of his sister, Pham quit his job, sold all of his possessions, and embarked on a year-long bicycle journey that took him through the Mexican desert, around a thousand-mile loop from Narita to Kyoto in Japan; and, after five months and 2,357 miles, to Saigon, where he finds "nothing familiar in the bombed-out darkness." In Vietnam, he's taken for Japanese or Korean by his countrymen, except, of course, by his relatives, who doubt that as a Vietnamese he has the stamina to complete his journey ("Only Westerners can do it"); and in the United States he's considered anything but American. A vibrant, picaresque memoir written with narrative flair and an eye-opening sense of adventure,Catfish and Mandalais an unforgettable search for cultural identity.
Author(s): Andrew X. Pham
Edition: Paperback
Publisher: Picador USA
Year: 2000
Language: English
Pages: 344
Tags: Catfish and Mandala Andrew X. Pham Andrew Pham Asian-American Literature Literature Asian-America Vietnam
Contents
Title Page,
Epigraph,
Prologue,
1 - Exile – Pilgrim,
2 - Catfish-Dawn,
3 - Fallen – Leaves,
4 - Clan-Rift,
5 - Fallen – Leaves,
6 - Headwind – Tailspin,
7 - Japan-Dream,
8 - Last – Gamble,
9 - Mecca-Memory,
10 - Strange-Hearth,
11 - Fallen-Leaves,
12 - Divergent-Rhythm,
13 - Dying-Angels,
14 - Alley-World,
15 - Beggar-Grace,
16 - Fallen-Leaves,
17 - Hope-Adrift,
18 - Gift-Marriage,
19 - Jade-Giant,
20 - Fullcircle-Halflives,
21 - Baptizing-Buddha,
22 - Foreign-Asians,
23 - Milk-Mother,
24 - Chi-Daughter,
25 - Jungle-Station,
26 - Night-Wind,
27 - Fallen-Leaves,
28 - Hanoi-Visage,
29 - Patriot-Repose,
30 - Silence-Years,
31 - Blushing-Winter,
32 - Vietnamese-Karma,
33 - III-Wind,
34 - War-Survivors,
35 - Harlot-Heroine,
36 - Fallen-Leaves,
37 - Gaping-Fish,
38 - Chi-Minh,
39 - Fever-Ride,
40 - Fallen-Leaves,
41 - Coca-Cola,
42 - Brother-Brother,
43 - Father-Son,
44 - Viet-Kieu,
45 - Chi – Me,
46 - Blue-Peace,
Epilogue,
Praise for Andrew X. Pham's - Catfish and Mandala,
Acknowledgments,
Copyright Page,
