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Robert M. Pirsig

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values Mass Market Paperback – April 25, 2006

by Robert M Pirsig (Author)

1,676 customer reviews

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One of the most important and influential books written in the past half-century, Robert M. Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a powerful, moving, and penetrating examination of how we live . . . and a breathtaking meditation on how to live better. Here is the book that transformed a generation: an unforgettable narration of a summer motorcycle trip across America's Northwest, undertaken by a father and his young son. A story of love and fear -- of growth, discovery, and acceptance -- that becomes a profound personal and philosophical odyssey into life's fundamental questions, this uniquely exhilarating modern classic is both touching and transcendent, resonant with the myriad confusions of existence . . . and the small, essential triumphs that propel us forward.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“An unforgettable trip.” (Time)

“The book is inspired, original. . . . The analogies with Moby-Dick are patent.” (The New Yorker)

“Profoundly important...full of insights into our most perplexing contemporary dilemmas.” (New York Times)

“It is filled with beauty. . .a finely made whole that seems to emanate from a very special grace.” (Baltimore Sun)

“A miracle . . . sparkles like an electric dream.” (The Village Voice)

About the Author

Robert M. Pirsig (1928-2017) studied chemistry and philosophy (B.A., 1950) and journalism (M.A., 1958) at the University of Minnesota and also attended Benares Hindu University in India, where he studied Oriental philosophy. He is also the author of this book's sequel, entitled Lila.

Product details

Mass Market Paperback: 540 pages
Publisher: HarperTorch; 1st edition (April 25, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9780060589462
ISBN-13: 978-0060589462
ASIN: 0060589469
Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1.1 x 6.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 1,676 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,952 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #11 in Zen Philosophy (Books)
- #29 in Traveler & Explorer Biographies
- #35 in Emotional Mental Health

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Read this. Then read it again decades later.

March 13, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

In high school I would have told you this is my favorite book. I just re-read it 2 decades later. And I realize that I grasped about 20% of it at the time. Maybe. Something about the meandering philosophical flow captured my imagination at the time. But reading it now, as a father, I grasp the concepts underneath. I don't readily admit this but I wept at the end. Then I read the afterward and totally lost it. Beautiful, courageous work.

157 people found this helpful

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Linda Blanchard

Plenty of Buddhism in this book, it's just not overt

September 9, 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Looking at the reviews here, this book is loved by hundreds and reviled by a small percentage. I wonder what causes so much passion? It's wonderful that we have, among those who gave the book just one star, so many people who are so far above it intellectually -- too familiar with philosophy, too personally enlightened, perhaps -- to find any value in it. But I would like to point out to the subset of our best and brightest, those who tell everyone else not to waste their time reading it, that just because you got nothing out of the book doesn't mean no one else will.

One of the complaints I see here is that there isn't much of the title's Zen nor much motorcycle maintenance, either -- and I note that the author says something about this in his introduction, so it must be true, right? -- yet I believe there is plenty of both. If the reader is expecting an introduction to Zen or a How To manual on motorcycle maintenance, those will not be found. It's not even the author sharing his enjoyment of either of the two fields with his audience. But the themes that run throughout the book explore many of the same ideas the Buddha did, and several concepts important to motorcycle maintenance that will not be found in manuals are discussed throughout the work. But the title really represents the duality that Pirsig puts under his microscope: Zen represents the hippie "go with the flow" attitude that is contrasted to the "slice and dice" schemes of technology, via motorcycle maintenance. And in the end, the title doesn't say just motorcycle maintenance; it's the "Art " that's critical, because one thing the book is aiming for is to show us that the science of technology is an art -- or at least should be an art -- and that the two ways of looking at life don't need to be in opposition, but can be quite naturally blended, to the benefit of all concerned.

It might seem like the novel is caught in its time, with language about those who see things as "groovy" vs. "the squares" but the dichotomy between the two has been under discussion in various forms for centuries: romanticism vs. empiricism, passion vs. logic, science vs. religion. The same split is found today underlying two sides of the debate over climate change. If the book is not approached as being literally about Zen and motorcycle maintenance, but as using these as stand-ins for concepts that can be much larger -- or even much smaller -- there is a lot to be gained here.

Another complaint is that the protagonist is not sympathetic, but that's because this isn't a novel written from the romantic side, nor, really, the empirical side -- it's not even a novel, though it reads a lot like one -- it is a true-enough tale of relationships between two related men, and a father and a son, and a road trip that carries with it time for plenty of slow discussion of philosophy. The book takes its time putting the pieces together, and the author isn't trying to win our love -- if you can approach the book on its own terms rather than with a whole load of expectations about what it should do and how it should do it, you may get something out of it -- but to truly enjoy it, you've got to go with the flow, you know?

I know I get a lot out of it every time I read it. I love road stories, and this one is paced just like a real long-distance trip, with long stretches of time to think things through interspersed with short breaks for taking care of the business of life. That what's going on in the environment, relationships, and other encounters reflects what's being thought through in the long stretches is a small bonus. The writing is clean and evocative, enjoyable. For the most part, the carefully constructed introduction to all the elements needed to understand the philosophy is gentle enough to be clear and not overly taxing, at least until the deepest parts, which can be hard to follow (and for good reason). The elements of psychological mystery captivate me each time.

I first read ZAMM the year it was released, in the mid-70s, and have read it at least every five years since then, and each time I thoroughly enjoy it. The first time through, I could not follow the philosophy all the way down into the descent into madness it brought on. Five years later -- with time for the ideas to be examined through my own life -- I got it, even agreed with it. This time, this reading, is the first time I ended up doubting the validity of the greatest philosophical insights the story offers. Ironically, it's my deepening understanding of Buddhism that changed my mind.

There really is a lot of Buddhism in this book, and not specifically Zen, either, but the deepest themes common to all forms of Buddhism. The questions about the wisdom of dividing the world up into a duality of the physical vs. the mental, of seeing ourselves as somehow separate from everything else, these were explored by the Buddha, too, though the framework he used to discuss these ideas was -- obviously -- nothing to do with motorcycles. In Dependent Arising he, too, considers how it comes to be that we split the world in two. "Name and form" he calls this split, and later thinkers have described what he was talking about as the same subject-object division that Pirsig is mulling over in ZAMM. The Buddha, though, says that it is "desire for existence" -- not quality -- that, to borrow Pirsig's phrase, "is the generator of everything we know". I tend to agree with the Buddha because I can see in our lives, and through our sciences, what that desire for existence is and why it drives us to divide the world up the way we do, and exactly how it leads us into trouble. I can't say the same for Pirsig's metaphysics, but that doesn't stop me from deep enjoyment of the book. I hope to have another half-dozen five-yearly reads, if I'm lucky, and -- who knows -- maybe I will come around again to see it the way he does.

208 people found this helpful

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Does not holdup

October 23, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I read this book back in the 70s, and i dont think I finished it back then.

I decided to read it again because Im an avid motorcycle rider and follow eastern spiritual teachings.

The book is not informative on Zen, motorcycle maintenance or operation, philosophy, except on a very superficial level. The author has written a loose autobiography of his own troubled life and mental illness issues, which is sad and tragic, and offers very little except the chance to feel some empathy for the him and his family.

There are several points in the story where the author loses his credibility. When he talks about travelling to India and learning about Buddism from trained teachers, but then confesses that he never actually practiced meditation, and then rejected the teachings, his experience it completely invalid. Meditation is not something you talk about and grasp mentally and then progress. It is something you do. It is an experience that you engage in, it alters the way you think and your perception of the world. If he had actually sat down and practiced mindfulness meditation then he would not have become obsessed with words contests between Greek philosophers, and ended up having a nervous breakdown and being subjected to electroshock therapy. He rejected the teachers in India who would have helped him gain understanding, and ran off on his own path to personal destruction.

I dont know why this was a best seller in the 1970s. It does not hold up after all these years. If you want to learn about zen and Buddhism read the public domain book "Mindfulness in Plain English". If you want to read a book that really touches on the zen of motor vehicle repair, get the original VW manual by John Muir "How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive". Even if you dont own a vintage air cooled VW vehicle, it is a good insight into hands on mechanical work, and the positive mental state that this book fails to capture.

I wish I had found an honest review of this book before I purchased it for my kindle, I would have skipped it and read something else.

19 people found this helpful

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