Binding: Paperback
Description: Winner of the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize A New York Times Notable Book of the Year Winner of the Whiting Writers Award A Seattle Post - Intelligencer Best Book of the Year Catfish and Mandala is 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. Intertwined with an often humorous travelogue spanning a year of discovery is a memoir of war escape and ultimately family secrets. 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; on a thousand - mile loop from Narita in South Korea 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 Mandala is an unforgettable search for cultural identity.
Title: Catfish And Mandala A Two - Wheeled Voyage Through The Landscape And Memory Of Vietnam
Author(s): Pham Andrew X.
Publisher: Picador
Barcode: 9780312267179
Pages: 352 Pages
Language: English
Publication Date: 9/2/2000