Pham, instead of seeking out remote places where he could explore fantasies of self-sufficiency, instinctively understood that self-knowledge emerges from engagement with others. “A modern Plutarch might pair Pham's story with that of Chris McCandless, the uncompromising young man whose spiritual quest led him to a forlorn death in Alaska. A brilliantly written memoir in which a young Vietnamese-American uses a bicycle journey in his homeland as a vehicle to tell his eventful life story." “Far more than a travelogue… Catfish and Mandala is a seamlessly constructed work deftly combining literary techniques with careful, evenhanded reportage… A gifted writer… Pham opens readers to the full sadness of the human condition on both sides of the world, marveling at spiritual resilience amid irreconcilable facts.” Catfish and Mandala records a remarkable odyssey across landscape and into memory.” “Thoreau, Theroux, Kerouac, Steinbeck, Mark Twain and William Least Heat-Moon-the roster of those who have turned to their travels for inspiration includes some of America's most noted scribes. Scenes of wild road adventure worthy of Jack Kerouac.”Ĭatfish and Mandala “is one of the unlikeliest seriocomic travel adventures on record.”
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