Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam

The randomness of fate turns up repeatedly, both directly and indirectly, in Pham’s narrative. Chapter 2 hints at this early on, with details of Pham’s father’s (Thong) life in prison after the war. Much of the chapter concerns the father’s friendship with another prisoner named Tuan. The prisoners all live in fear: If they hear their name over the loudspeaker, it means their lives are forfeit, and guards will shoot them. Tuan is among the unlucky captives who meet this fate. Pham’s father also works in a mine-clearing squad, which results in the death of a number of prisoners from a random explosion, but Thong survives. Finally, Thong hears his name over the loudspeaker. Instead of death, however, he’s set free in a seemingly random act of lenience.

There are many instances of randomness in Pham’s own life as well, not least during his family’s escape from Vietnam by boat: A fishing net gets caught in the propeller, delaying departure, and then a patrol boat appears but doesn’t investigate. Had these random acts not taken place, there might not be any story to tell. Indeed, when Pham himself falls from the Indonesian ship that saves them, he’s saved by a crewman. Pham’s family’s survival stems from random fate. The randomness of fate surfaces in Vietnam for Pham as well. Throughout his cycling trip, Pham meets countless people whose fate could be his. He becomes obsessed with a beggar girl who reminds him of his ex-girlfriend, Trieu; the girl could very well have escaped while Trieu didn’t. While touring his childhood home in Phan Thiet with the man who runs a motorcycle repair shop, he verbalizes this randomness by saying, “Fate could have switched our destinies and no one would have been the wiser” (181).

There are brief instances in the narrative where characters take an active role in their fate by making the right choices and working hard. When Pham’s family moves to a poor neighborhood in San Jose, California, Pham’s parents tell their children, “We’re different. Never forget that we are different. You are better than they. You must study harder, work harder, and be better than they in every way” (191). His father studies 18 hours a day, every day, to earn an Associate’s degree in computer programming, believing that the hard work would pay off. In this sense, Pham felt that he and his siblings might have control over fate. The rest of the narrative, however, muddles this volition with fate’s randomness both in the present and the past, thus creating dissonance between the two ideas.