Catfish and Mandala is a non-fiction novel about the bicycle journey through Vietnam of the author Andrew X. Pham. Andrew left Vietnam when he was young, he was one of the many boat refugees, and grew up in California. His family had a few problems with adjusting to their new country, especially his older sister Chin had a hard time, wich leaded that he(during the book the reader learns that Chin has changed her gender..) commited suicide. Pham quitted 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 learns that people don't see him as a Vietnamese man, they see him as a Viet-kieu, a term used by people in Vietnam to name overseas Vietnamese, or the people he meets think he is Japanese or Korean, and in the United States he's considered anything but American..
The book takes the reader along with Andrew on his bycicle journey criss-cross throug Vietnam.
Catfish and Mandala is a book that starts slowly, but really takes pace when he starts with his bike journey, where he meets many people, being from nice people who offer him to stay for the night, to trouble at the train station, and many more adventures during his tour. Gives a good view in the daily life of present day Vietnam, and into the life of Vietnamese immigrants in the United States.
