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Title: Catfish and Mandala: A 2 Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam by Andrew X. Pham ISBN: 0-312-26717-7 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 01 September, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.55 (84 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Not what I expected
Comment: I'd read several 5-star reviews of this book and was eagerly looking forward to reading it. But I came away strangely disappointed. It's not that it wasn't a good book; it's just not what I expected.
If a reader hopes to get a feeling for the present day Vietnam, this is probably not the book to begin with. As a returning Vietnamese who left his country as a 10 yo after it fell to the Communists, the author experiences almost exclusively the underbelly of the culture and sees little to praise.
As a vehicle for exploring his own conflicted relationship with his parents, siblings, extended family, and his own identity, it works well.
As a source for learning more about the length, width, and most of all the depth of Vietnam, it is less successful.
Rating: 5
Summary: Unveils the complex relationship between Vietnam and America
Comment: Catfish and Mandala is about the author's journey to Vietnam to get in touch with his roots. Andrew is a Vietnamese-American that immigrated to the US shortly after Vietnam's reunification. "Mandala" signifies a bicycle wheel, as Andrew's journey is undertaken on bicycle. His stories of modern-day Vietnam are interdispersed with his mother's memories and his own memories of his childhood in Vietnam and the US. This story is mind-broadening -- I am amazed at the difficult trials he experienced at such a young age. Andrew also has to come to terms with his incredible luck when compared to people still living in Vietnam. Viet-Khieu - Vietnamese-Americans - are not always received warmly in Vietnam.
At the same time that Catfish and Mandala reveals truths about Vietnam that no Westerner would ever unveil, it also tells about the racism in US society that many of us never experience. I was shocked to read about the subtle and outright racism that is a part of his life in the US. At the same time, the author maintains a love for the United States, only made stronger by his visit to his fatherland.
Catfish and Mandala, so far, is one of the best books I have read this year, perhaps the best. 24 hours after I started it, I had finished it. The writing is hilarious, tragic, vivid, visceral. I can see the beggars, smell the rain-damp air, visualize the author's changing relationship with his homeland as he immerses himself in it. This book definitely deserves all the awards and accolades it has already received and then some. I am of a mind to go out and buy it for everyone I know.
For the past two days, I have come home from work, sat on the couch to read it, and not moved for several hours. Not even hunger could interrupt me. I have even attempted to read it in the car, during those long traffic lights. Such is the grip that this book takes hold, having a sense of when to lighten the story with tales of cultural misunderstandings contrasted with the difficult stories of his family.
Rating: 5
Summary: Great for those who want an introduction modern Vietnam.
Comment: This book is two-fold. One part of the book is a story about the struggle of a Vietnamese family who travels to America and their tragic story after reaching the U.S. The second part of the novel is about one of the members of that family who travels to Vietnam after completing an engineering degree at UCLA. Both of the stories are centered around Andrew X. Pham (I assume it's autobiographical).
The story about Pham's family's immigration to America is in and of itself a reason to buy this book. Although Mexican, Irish and Eastern European immigration to America are covered in school, the Vietnamese experience is one that is almost almost ignored. That is regretable because it is a facinating one.
This book is also a great view of modern day Vietnam. Americans often ignore the plight of people in 3rd world countires like Vietnam. Reading this book will open your eyes to the hardships those who live in Vietnam are having today.
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Title: Shadows and Wind: A View of Modern Vietnam by Robert Templer ISBN: 0140285970 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 1999 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Sacred Willow: Four Generations in the Life of a Vietnamese Family by Duong Van Mai Elliott ISBN: 0195137876 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 2000 List Price(USD): $22.50 |
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Title: When Heaven and Earth Changed Places: A Vietnamese Woman's Journey from War to Peace by Le Ly Hayslip, Jay Wurts ISBN: 0452271681 Publisher: Plume Books Pub. Date: 01 December, 1993 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The House on Dream Street : Memoir of an American Woman in Vietnam by Dana Sachs ISBN: 1565122917 Publisher: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill Pub. Date: 08 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: The Unwanted: A Memoir of Childhood by Kien Nguyen ISBN: 0316284610 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: 08 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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