Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #354490 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Customer Reviews

Saved by the Second Half.
Basing a new book on a much loved (or at least best selling) original is always going to pose some problems. How far can an author go in his "homage" to a book before the new work becomes plagiarism or worse, parody? In this regard the author of Now and Zen sails very close to the wind in the opening sections of his book. Both books start early in the morning - 8.30 in the original, 9.30 in the new - on hot days, both books say that it's not a problem on a motor bike and within the first two pages both riders have seen red-winged blackbirds. Some of the phrases used in the new are so redolent of the old that they caused me to pause mid-paragraph - "Change, not good, not bad. Just change." It seems that the author is straining to use a voice that is not his own, and in the first section of the book at least, the rhythms and structure of the original seem to overwhelm anything he has to say.

As the book progresses this becomes much less noticeable - this may be due to the authors forced deviations away from the path of the original "Zen Journey" cased by change, and also be a growing understanding that many parts of the original book were changed for "rhetorical purposes". You cannot be a slave to a pathway that in fact did not exist.

Many of the characters from the original book are visited along the way, although the Persig's themselves are only present through the letters they have written. The death of Persig's son Chris, killed in a street assault, robs the book of a valuable witness to the original journey.
It is the second half of this book which rescues it from the concerns mentioned above. The more the book progresses the better it becomes. In the end we are given a much clearer vision of both authors - Richardson and Pirsig. Three stars feels overly critical here, Four stars a little generous - so I'll go with generosity.

If you have not read either of the books published by Robert Persig this book may act as a gentle introduction to them both, but I think it is far more likely to appeal to those who have already discovered the books and are looking for more information on their broader context and history.