Catfish And Mandala Summary

Catfish and Mandala is about the author Andre X. Pham’s journey through Japan and Vietnam on bicycle. It is more than a physical journey it is also a psychological journey and discovery for the author. He was trying to find his place in the world, come to grips with his transgender brother’s suicide, and figure out what might have been if his family had stayed in Vietnam after the Vietnam War. Andrew also known as An, his Vietnamese name. Oftentimes not American enough to be American and not Vietnamese enough to be Vietnamese. The Americans call him a variety of racial slurs most of which point to them confusing him for being a variety of other origins like Chinese rather than Vietnamese. The Vietnamese often confuse him for being Japanese …show more content…
Pham wrote about his family in an honest light. He revealed the inner demons and secrets the family had. It left me with a sense of sympathy and thankfulness to his discussion to not sugar coat his family, but to show them in their true self. Every family has their own issues and secrets they hide from outsiders. I feel that Pham being honest about his family’s issues perhaps gave closure to him in the same manner the bicycle trip gave him some form of closure and realization of who he is. Pham revealed to the reader even the parts of his family his own family avoid talking about like the suicide of his transgender brother named Chi-Minh who and previously ran away and was missing from the family for over a decade. Or the family coming to terms that two of the sons were gay. The family while traditional never exactly fully disowns their children for these things even when not fully pleased with them. Although you can’t block out the lashing the father gave to Chi-Minh when he found out his eldest daughter was passing as a boy at school. That incident leading to Chi running away. When Chi finally returned to the family as Minh a fully transitioned post-op transgender man, even the father had pride in his son because Chi-Minh became a welder and worked in the aerospace industry. The father showed pride that his child even though a runaway somehow did show Vietnamese values is being …show more content…
He is a survivor of war trying to find his way to healing the same as a veteran needs to. I still feel that he did a good job writing it and helped give the reader insight into what it is like to be Vietnamese, experience the war, and going back and trying to find your roots in the world. I do wish he would have gone more into detail of the history of the war and Vietnam. I feel that if I hadn’t taken this class on the Vietnam War I would have been left wanting a better account and detail of who was who and what, and why things were happening. I finished the book with the feeling of his family being dear to me especially Chi-Minh, however for the actual author I could take him or leave him in my emotional thoughts as he didn’t truly reveal too much about his inner self in this