Our book group choice for April 2007 is Catfish and Mandala by Andrew Pham. It 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.
Catfish and Mandala is a memoir by Andrew X. Pham, a Vietnamese-American man who travels to Vietnam on a solo bicycle journey. The book is a hybrid of travelogue and memoir, as Pham recounts his travels through Southeast Asia while also reflecting on his family’s history and his own identity as a Vietnamese-American.
Pham was born in Vietnam in 1967, and his family fled the country by boat when he was 10 years old. They settled in California, where Pham grew up feeling like an outsider. He was not fluent in Vietnamese, and he did not feel like he belonged to either American or Vietnamese culture.
As an adult, Pham began to feel a strong desire to learn more about his Vietnamese heritage. He decided to travel to Vietnam on a bicycle, a journey that would take him through Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia.
Pham’s journey is both physical and emotional. He travels through some of the most beautiful and remote parts of Southeast Asia, but he also confronts the painful memories of his family’s past. He meets with relatives who he has never met before, and he learns about the war that tore his country apart.
Throughout his journey, Pham struggles to reconcile his two worlds. He is torn between his American identity and his Vietnamese heritage. He is also haunted by the suicide of his sister, who was transgender.
Discussion Questions
- Andrew mentions that he was ashamed of going back to Vietnam empty-handed, while most of the other Vietnamese on the plane are crowning their homecoming with thousands of dollars worth of gifts (67-68). What is the significance of those gifts to the giver? What is their significance to the receiver, who is aware that they come from the U.S? Do you think those objects remind the Vietnamese of their painful history with the U.S? Or do material objects blind the receiver? Can history and culture be forgotten though wealth and abundance?
- Death is a recurrent theme in the text. Early on the book Andrew shares how his sister Chi, took her own life away because she couldn’t fit in the “sea of white faces” in her community (33). Later in the book, Andrew shares his own struggle to fight for his life when he was ten. Those two examples connect death and life, to nationality and heritage, as Chi died because her shame of herself and her culture, and Andrew’s life was threatened because he was Vietnamese. Can we define death? What is the difference between the two examples? How do you think Andrew feels about death and suicide? What does he feel about his Vietnamese nationality in relation to death? Was he blessed or doomed to be birthed in Vietnam?
- What do you make of Andrew’s comments about the city when he lands in Vietnam (75-85)?Is he surprised? Is he pleased? Describe Andrew’s mental and emotional state as he sees the city that he left ten years ago? Andrew is in his mid to late twenties, do you think he still carries the images of the city’s past with him?
- In various places in the novel, Pham uses the imagery of arteries to describe streets and cities in Vietnam. What does this metaphor say about An’s view of Vietnam? How does the idea of a living, bleeding city contrast with his memories and dreams of the visit dying?
- On page 184, An discusses the idea of becoming “too American.” What does it mean to be too American? Does this make An American or Vietnamese? Does this Americanization change how An views Vietnam? Would this cause him to be biased against Vietnam?
- On page 191, An’s dad mentions their heaven of American life has traps. Why does An’s dad have such a pessimistic view of America? Why does he refuse to become a part of America? Why would he feel better than everyone else they meet?
- What is the significance of his dreams shifting from Vietnamese to English so abruptly? How does his sister’s absence connect to this transition? How does her running away effect Andrew’s cultural identity? If she was too American, how can her absence, which arguably resulted in the Pham family’s increased Americanizing be explained?
- What does No-name represent for Andrew and for the memoir as a whole? Is his style of communication and mysterious life meaningful for the theme of cultural ambiguity? What’s the significance of him being called No-name rather than his place in the family (for example-third son)? Is this familial/language rootlessness a significant parallel? Why?
- What is the role of male camaraderie within the page 178-233? How do the complexities of the of the friendships between An and the male train riders inform An’s opinion of the Vietnamese (consider both the individual and the group)? How does friendhsip with men differ from his interaction with women? Consider women he sleeps with and women he casually converses with.
- Chapter Fourteen (97) introduces the reader to the routine or ritual between An and his mother that inspires part of the title of the book. Anh leaves half of a cooked catfish to An and promises that she will be back by the time it is finished. Even though the fish runs out, An is able to make do with the leftover sauce. What does this tell the reader about An’s trust in his mother, or the adults in his life as a child? What made this occurrence significant enough to be part of the book’s title?
- When An finds himself incredibly moved by the beggar girl in chapter fifteen, he feels guilty that her resemblance to someone he knew is what it took to “remind” him (108) that he could have suffered the same fate and what moves him to have compassion instead of annoyance for the Vietnamese people. Should An have felt guilty over this?
- Pham often inserts vivid flashbacks into the lives of his parents, writing from their points-of-view about times he himself would have been too young to remember. Does this indicate that he is using Catfish and Mandala to tell the story of his family as a whole? How can one discern which details of the flashbacks are derived explicitly from the recollections of his parents – who did not know he was writing the book until much later – and which details he is forced to fill with his own imagination or memory?