The subtitle of this book, "A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam", gives a clearer picture of Andrew Pham’s story than the actual title does. Andrew and his family escaped from Vietnam shortly after the Communists took over in 1975 and finally ended up in California. In a period of 20 years there, Andrew graduated from UCLA as an engineer but later gave up his high-paying job to bicycle through all the western states and finally most of Vietnam.

He and his brothers and sisters were small children when the family secretly fled from Vietnam in a small fishing boat. But Andrew’s memories of his homeland were strong enough that he couldn’t resist going back. He wasn’t running away from home, but quietly "riding out my front door with a pocketful of twenties" was what he felt compelled to do.

When he arrived in Vietnam, he became a Viet-kieu, or a Vietnamese turned American. This wasn’t always complimentary because of what American forces had done during the Vietnam War. Also, the Vietnamese people had to deal with "the French, then the Japanese, then the Americans, a lifetime of servitude without reward."

Andrew thought that Saigon traffic symbolized Vietnamese life. It was a continuous charade of "posturing, bluffing, fast moves, tenacity, and surrenders." But he realized that the Vietnamese were people who "view themselves as victims, punished for a crime they neither understood nor know they have committed."

But one friend there didn’t believe that Andrew’s moving to American fully freed him from his Vietnam heritage. The friend remarked, "In America....you Viet-kieu are guests. And guests don’t have the same rights as hosts."

Another thing that made Andrew wonder if he would ever be an American was his family life and its adherence to Vietnamese customs. His father, whom he never embraced or shook hands with, would beat his children for little or no reason. In California he was briefly put in jail for beating his oldest daughter, who then ran away from home and later committed suicide. Andrew dedicates this book to her.

Andrew's description of Vietnam vividly shows a country of abject poverty, where "Coke banners have displaced the Vietnam flag." And Saigon he compared to a whore, who has to sell her body to any takers. Catfish and Mandala gives a compelling account of the aftermath in Vietnam which followed a war brought on by other countries. The book was published in 1999.