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Prologue and Chapters 1-3

• The narrator, Andrew X. Pham, declines to have his fortune read by the monk who foretold his sister's suicide. Instead, he quits his job and bicycles into Mexico. This is how the memoir begins.

• Throughout the memoir, Andrew struggles with the idea of fitting into two cultures - American and Vietnamese. He believes this struggle is what caused his sister's suicide. Andrew describes his physicality in detail, and remembers his family's exit from Vietnam.

• While he is bicycling through Mexico, he meets a former American soldier who fought in the Vietnam War. This man, Tyle, apologizes to Andrew and begins to weep. Andrew's family was place in a labor camp, and his father was scheduled to be executed there.

Chapters 4-7

• After returning home from his bicycle trip in Mexico, Andrew learns that his girlfriend, Trieu, has cheated on him and left him for...

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