Product Description

The narration of a summer motorcycle trip undertaken by a father and his son becomes a text which speaks directly to the confusions and agonies of existence, detailing a personal, philosophical odyssey.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1507 in Books
• Published on: 1999-11-18
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 451 pages

Review
A remarkable classic, at last back in print. It is not (of course) about motorcycle maintenance. It is a guide, a life support system, a novel, a philosophical treatise, an attempt to analyse life, an examination of the nature of space and time... all things to most men (and women). The archetypal mind-stretching book. (Kirkus UK)

Book Jacket
"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is an unforgettable trip." --Time

"Disturbing, deeply moving, full of insights ... this is a wonderful book." --Times Literary Supplement

"This book may very well be a profoundly important one--a great one even--full of insights into our most perplexing contemporary dilemmas ... " --New York Times

"I think Mr. Pirsig has written a work of great, perhaps urgent, importance ... Read this book." -- Observer

"A brilliant and original book ... a pathfinding attempt to examine and solve our contemporary ills. Everybody should read it." --Guardian

About the Author
Robert M. Pirsig was born in 1928 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He holds degrees in chemistry, philosophy, and journalism and also studied Oriental philosophy at Benares Hindu University in India. He is the author of this book's sequal, entitled Lila.

Customer Reviews

Isn't life funny?
I too had to read it more than once...

What's the point of the author indulging in a 'Chautauqua' on 'Romantic' & 'Classic' 'Values', with the resultant (extravagant) soliloquy on the 'Value' of 'Quality', when the author can't even work out how to relate to his own child (who having spent the majority of his formative years in apparent mental turmoil - brought on by the behaviour of the author, as described in this book - was murdered in San Francisco 2 weeks before his 23rd birthday)?

This book is just another example of self-indulgence sold off as enlightenment...

What's the point? There is NO point.

I need 7 stars!!! ----->-->--,--'--@
Yeah, I am not very good at writting reviews but there you go...

This book is the kind that you borrow, read almost twice, slowly, and then you have to buy it to finish reading it the second time! The adventure, the trip is not just any trip, sprinkled with philosophy, sense of humour, and mechanics. I must say, that I never owned a cycle, and I probably never will, they scare me to death! Although I secretly love see them go past, and I would have so much enjoyed a trip like this with this guy in a classic Harley!! Oh yeah! hehe

Also, the amount of laughter and food for thought in it, and the glow of the main character made me love him dearly very early in the book, is a very caring, sometimes moody character, but his heart is real gold in powder.
I needed to have this book with me, besides my bed at night, or wherever; it is a reminder of how good is to be human after all (with or without greasy hands) ;-P

Summarising LOL, is entertaining, relaxing, and very well written. It is not only a book, for me it has become a friend.

A "Da Vinci Code " for the 1970s
I read this years ago, when I was studying Greek and Latin literature and Philosophy at university, and dismissed it more or less out of hand.

Coming back to it as a 40 year old father (the same age as Pirsig was when he made the journey depicted in the novel with his son)I found much more to enjoy and be affected by in the story itself. There is no doubt that the theme of the alienated son and father being reunited recalls that of the Odyssey and is genuinely moving, if clumsily resolved.

As for the philosophy, well, Pirsig admits without any embarrassment in his 1999 introduction to the book that, at the time of writing, he thought, quite incorrectly, that Phaedrus means wolf in Classical Greek. If you can't deal with a word like wolf, you won't exaclty handle mythos, logos or the technical terms in philosophical writing. If someone who clearly has no Greek at all wishes to pass himself off as an authority on the Pre-Socratics, or Plato, or Aristotle, that is just a bit embarrassing, really, and tells you all you need to know about how seriously to take his views.

Therefore the book strikes me as a (very superior, admittedly) Da Vinci Code for its day - a good story ornamented with some specious learning, and none the worse for that, as long as it is not taken seriously.

If Pirsig wants us to walk away thinking we should apply ourselves to our work a bit more and generally try harder, that is no bad thing, and as he admits himself, nobody would disagree with the message, but don't go looking for any great secret of life here. It is just a nice book.