Prologue and Chapters 1-3 Summary and Analysis

In his book, Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam, Andrew X. Pham recounted his adventures bicycling through Vietnam to visit people and places he knew before his family immigrated to America. His encounters on the road were poignant and sometimes harrowing, and he added another dimension to the story by describing the lives and difficult relationships over the years within his large, pain-filled family.

The book began with a short quote from the poet, Max Garland, about sadness and longing. It was followed by a one-paragraph Prologue that said a Vietnamese Buddhist monk had foretold that Andrew's sister, Chi, would commit suicide at age 32, which came true. When Andrew's Grandmother asked if he would like to read his fortune, written 27 years earlier by the same monk, he declined...