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Robert M. Pirsig

Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance: 25th Anniversary Edition Paperback – 18 Nov. 1999

by Robert Pirsig (Author)

5,128 ratings

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Acclaimed as one of the most exciting books in the history of American letters, this modern epic became an instant bestseller upon publication in 1974, transforming a generation and continuing to inspire millions. A narration of a summer motorcycle trip undertaken by a father and his son, the book becomes a personal and philosophical odyssey into fundamental questions of how to live. Resonant with the confusions of existence, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a touching and transcendent book of life.

Print length

432 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Vintage
Publication date

18 Nov. 1999
Dimensions

12.9 x 2.7 x 19.8 cm
ISBN-10

0099322617
ISBN-13

978-0099322610
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Product description

Review

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

"Mr Pirsig has written a work of great, perhaps urgent, importance... Read this book" (Observer)

"The book is inspired, original...the narrative tact, the perfect economy of effect defy criticism. The analogies with Moby Dick are patent" (New Yorker)

"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)

Book Description

'A brilliant and original book... Everybody should read it' Guardian

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage; Reprint edition (18 Nov. 1999)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 432 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0099322617
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0099322610
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.9 x 2.7 x 19.8 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 164,370 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 150 in Zen Philosophy
- 666 in Psychology & Emotions
- 1,052 in Philosopher Biographies

Customer reviews:
5,128 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		69%
4 star		17%
3 star		8%
2 star		3%
1 star		3%

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5t4n5 Dot Com

An absolute classic must read before you die book...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 June 2019

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It’s one of those ubiquitous books that’s kept turning up on library shelves, charity shop shelves and bookshop shelves throughout my life and yet i’ve always walked away from it, until now.

I’ve always had quite a deep interest in Zen and it always seemed to me that putting it with motorcycle maintenance just wasn’t something i wanted to know about. But now i have a motorbike that needs some maintenance and this book turned up in Kindle daily deals for 99p i thought the time was right.

But oh, how wrong i’ve been all these years. It’s not a book about Zen or how to fix a motorbike while practising Zen, it’s a wholly different thing altogether.

In fact, it’s a road trip book where our narrator takes his son on a road trip on an old motorbike across the USA. But it’s a road trip with a difference.

At it’s heart it’s a book about insanity, the condition of society and its relationship to technology, and a fair bit of Greek philosophy as well; and it’s all broken up with the story of the road trip. And it’s simply, awesome.

With hindsight i’m happy that i’ve never read it until now as i’m much older and it really blended nicely with my own life experiences: having dropped out of a Philosophy degree course for much the same reasons and now many years later i can look back and see things more clearly.

And the ending in the ‘Afterword’ is what truly completes this book. It really is a masterpiece of writing.

45 people found this helpful

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ExRx

Challenging read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 September 2017

Verified Purchase

This is a challenging book to read and I admit it took a while to 'get to grips with it'.
I feel; personally speaking, that this is a book I will need to re-read to fully understand all that it offers, but I can understand the criticism offered by others who find it puzzling, banal or just self-indulgence by the author.
The author was clearly very intelligent and well versed in Classical literature
Having completed the book, I found this to be one of, [if not the hardest book I have ever read]. The author seemingly was dealing with his own intellectual struggles with the duality of life and this is the context of the book, set within a motorcycle journey that he took previously and which he now repeats with his son and a couple of friends.
It is my take, that it was written to illustrate both the perspectives of himself now when 'recovered'; and also his recollections of earlier perspectives of his mind whilst he was facing these challenges. We would label these mental health challenges, [I think he records it as catatonic schizophrenia], but I like the alternative supposition posed by the author when he suggests a Zen perspective for the dichotomous struggles of his mind/personality.
He uses motorcycle maintenance as a metaphor for some of the aspects of our man-made constructs of human life and learning.
I have learnt from reading this book and would like to see it made into a film, if someone intuitive enough had the capacity to properly demonstrate the meanings and the lessons that Mr Pirsig was trying to tell us about.

40 people found this helpful

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A. Hall

A book whose time has come again.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 March 2020

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In fact its time has never gone away. This ingenious book gets to the heart of what has ailed Western, and now global, culture for hundreds of years, while telling a compelling story that combines a road trip with the slow revelation of a journey through mental collapse. Expect to be challenged to think hard during philosophical passages, as well as delighted by the parallel stories of the narrator's road trip, his relationship with his son, who rides with him, and his re-creation of his previous self. In today's world where we are increasingly seeing the catastrophic results of putting 'reason' and apparent objectivity before true value-based judgements in our relationship with nature, this book deserves to be read by everyone who has a mind and cares about how they use it.

9 people found this helpful

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dtp man

Discarded

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 July 2020

Verified Purchase

One can see why this book was a hit when published in the 1970s - coming after the Beatles met maharishi and transcendental meditation. This book an exploration of what man and machine (and what more male symbolic than a motorbike) is all about.
Not only dated (philosophical thought, even SF thinking advanced in last 50 years), Pirsig's painting with words becomes more and more abtsract as the chapters pass. They say all art is to get a reaction. For me it was not only finding some of his brush strokes (thinking) disagreeable, but also, mainly eye/mind glazing boredom/bafflement. Book discarded under half way through.

7 people found this helpful

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Colliedog

It’s good to be back.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 April 2018

Verified Purchase

So good to revisit this book after 42 years. In all that time I’ve never come across anything quite like it. It had a profound impact on my life in 1976, and I’m feeling it now all over again - still powerful, but in a different way.

20 people found this helpful

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