{"product_id":"9781429979924","title":"Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam","description":"\u003cp\u003eA Vietnamese Bicycle Days by a stunning new voice in American letters.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAndrew X. Pham dreamed of becoming a writer. Born in Vietnam and raised in California, he held technical jobs at United Airlines-and always carried a letter of resignation in his briefcase. His father had been a POW of the Vietcong; his family came to America as \"boat people.\" His sister committed suicide, prompting Andrew to quit his job. He sold all of his possessions and embarked on a year-long bicycle journey that took him through the Mexican desert, where he was treated as a bueno hermano, a \"good brother\"; 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 Mexico he's treated kindly as a Vietnamito, though he shouts, \"I'm American, Vietnamese American!\" 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 a wonderful, eye-opening sense of adventure, \u003ci\u003eCatfish and Mandala \u003c\/i\u003eis an unforgettable search for cultural identity.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Farrar, Straus and Giroux","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47134066245872,"sku":"9781429979924","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781429979924_p0.jpg?v=1769903449","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781429979924","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}