Book Review: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

I have finally finished ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE, by Robert Pirsig. This book was published first published April, 1974 by William Morrow publishing. This was after several publishing houses had turned Robert Pirsig down. My copy was printed by Bantam books in 1984. There is an afterword in the back by Robert Pirsig written in 1984 for the book. I am sorry that his son Chris died, especially in such brutal circumstances.
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I have found this book in both the fiction and non-fiction sections of the library and book stores. To me it is non-fiction, I had a small debate about this recently at a book club meeting. The afterword has helped me realize that I was correct in that it is not fiction. This is a story about a journey, in which there is self-discovery and the understanding of the thoughts that exist in your mind. I have taken many a long trip, by myself , in a car, where I find my mind drifting into thoughts about existence, my life, my philosophies and how they relate to others. I have many days when I have a hard time relating to my children. My husband and I would take drives with our children and commence what we called the "car talk", this was our way of having a captive audience, trying to find out what was in their heads at the moment or trying to impart our wisdom.

We spend a lot of time in the narrators head, as he remembers Phaedrus and his connection to this 'ghost.' The ghost that was himself, which happened after his electroshock therapy. His thoughts and ideas wiped clean, but still in his mind. The journey on the bike and the maintenance of the bike, take us through thoughts on Quality. What it means and how to we try and fail at achieving it, mainly by letting ourselves get in our own way.

There were times I agreed and times I was confused by what the author was trying to impart. I did have to reread several passages, but when you put a book down for a couple of days, sometimes it is best to reread some pages. I love the journey that the father and son took, the father retracing his history, but not sure how to relate to his son, who was part of that history.

There is more to this book than I could possibly write here, but once I finish the 100 I am suppose to read I am going to read Pirsig's second book called LILA, which has to do with morals.