Andrew X. Pham Livres

From the award-winning author of Catfish and Mandala comes a son's searing memoir of his Vietnamese father's experiences over the course of three wars.

Winner of the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize A New York Times Notable Book of the Year Winner of the Whiting Writers' Award A Seattle Post-Intelligencer Best Book of the Year Catfish and Mandala 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. Andrew X. Pham was born in Vietnam and raised in California. His father had been a POW of the Vietcong; his family came to America as "boat people." Following the suicide of his sister, Pham quit 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'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 an eye-opening sense of adventure, Catfish and Mandala is an unforgettable search for cultural identity.

At twenty-four, Dang Thuy Tram volunteered as a doctor in a Viet Cong battlefield hospital in Quang Ngai Province. Two years later, she was killed by American forces near her post. Her diary, written between 1968 and 1970, reveals her deep devotion to family and friends, the horrors of war, her longing for her high school sweetheart, and her commitment to her country. The entries are at times raw and at others lyrical, expressing her dignity and compassion amidst the relentless chaos of war. After her death, an American officer discovered her diary while following orders to destroy documents without military value. Just as he was about to burn it, his Vietnamese translator urged him to save it, noting it already contained "fire." The officer defied regulations, preserving the diary for thirty-five years. In 2005, a copy reached Dr. Tram’s elderly mother in Hanoi, leading to its publication in Vietnam and sparking national interest. This poignant account offers a vivid and personal perspective on the struggles faced by previous generations during the war. Translated by Andrew X. Pham and introduced by Pulitzer Prize winner Frances FitzGerald, it is a powerful testament to hope and the fragility of human life, told from the viewpoint of an adversary yet resonating universally.

De schrijver, als kind als bootvluchteling uit Vietnam gevlucht, beschrijft zijn indrukken tijdens een reis per fiets door zijn land van oorsprong.