Zen and Now: On the Trail of Robert Pirsig and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Vintage Departures)

Probably like everybody else who has bought this book I am a longtime fan of Robert Pirsig's classic book from 1974, so I was of course intrigued by Zen and Now and finally got around to reading it. Well, given the subject matter I expected to at least like this book, but I actually fell in love with it from the very first page. It's a GREAT "road book", and the writing is superb. The author employs a similar method as Pirsig did, weaving a present-tense travel narrative with biographical reflections ( and updates!) on Pirig's life story. Both are fascinating. This book could have been entitled Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Travel. For one thing, the author is crossing half the country NOT on a decked-out Honda Goldwing or a BMW or a Harley but on a 600cc single-cylinder dirt bike! That alone makes this an adventure worth reading about. Pirsig did his trip on a 305cc Honda, with his son on board no less. This was back in the days before motorcycles had evolved into two-wheeled cars. There is little of interest to me these days in modern motorcycle "touring", given the size and luxury of these things they are driving. But Mark Richardson rode a simple out-in-the-wind ( and rain!) honest-to-God motorcycle to really "feel out" the terrain Pirsig traveled in 1968 and made famous in his book. Richardson's is a heartfelt pilgrimage and a wonderful trip and read. Now that I've read this book I think it might be time to revisit the original, for the first time in about 20 years.

The book tells the story of being on a long-distance motorcycle journey retracing Robert Pirsig’s journey covered in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZAMM). He follows the same path and connects with some of the people mentioned in ZAMM. The story was interspersed with the background story of Pirsig before, during, and after the Zen trip, interspersed with some of the narrator’s personal story.So a clever device, but I found the narrator to be frustrating. The narrative of riding and the joys and challenges of traveling by motorcycle kept me engaged, but a Good Reads review summed up my thoughts: "Not the greatest book I ever read, definitely took advantage of ZAMM hype to publicize a mediocre road trip retracing Pirsig's steps. Read ZAMM and save yourself the trouble of reading this one."I ended up being annoyed by the narrator, but I did gain a greater sense of Pirsig himself, who seems to have been a not very admirable person. I am glad I read it as it was good to have a book that covered motorcycle riding as I was on my own riding trip, but this book is not great and I think that anyone reading it if they weren’t on a motorcycle trip themselves they would probably find even more disappointing.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is one of my favorite books. So, naturally, I was drawn to Richardson's work. I read this book over the course of a few days... it is good enough to keep me coming back to finish it.Richardson's retracing of the Zen ride makes me want to go repeat the journey as well. The fact that he met a number of the people who were characters in the original book adds quite a lot of interest to the story. I enjoyed the stories of those interactions greatly.If you enjoyed Pirsig's work, Richardson's is worth a shot. It's not the same as the original and is not intended to be. But the insight of another motorcyclist retracing Pirsig's path is interesting. Enjoy!

On page 8, the author offers a summary of Pirsig's Zen, saying "At its heart, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a simple tale that praises basic values and decries ugly technology."After reading that, I knew that the author missed the entire point of the original book, and that I could no longer indulge his replica journey. Honestly, it's hard to imagine a more concise and clumsy mis-representation Pirsig's work than that sentence. I cherry picked pages to read throughout the book and knew I made the right decision to put it down.In fact, Pirsig made it overtly clear that wholesale "decrying of ugly technology" was a common fallacy, calling it out in early chapters. It's the relationship to technology, not the technology itself, that participates in Quality; he admonishes against the temptation to dismiss technology as ugly, and encourages critical thought as to why this temptation exists.Additionally, to summarize the original as a "simple tale that praises basic values" is like talking about the canvas and not the painting. Sure, it was a motorcycle trip. Richardson's statement makes assumptions about a common knowledge of "basic values" which again misses the point. Pirsig's entire labor was a treatise to define an essential value, Quality, and went to great, painstaking lengths to do so.Was Pirsig self-absorbed and egocentric? Sure. But you have to give him kudos for the depth to which he goes to examine his philosophy from all angles. He also struggled with mental health and his autobiography was a moving eulogy to his own sanity. If one were to believe Richardson's cavalier summary, you might think you could just keep reading and get a modern, "Cliffs Notes" version of the journey while learning more about the journey, Pirsig, and his family in the context of yet another motorcycle trip.I've done my own 9,000 mile motorcycle journey across the country. I could write my own musings and meditations as well. So have thousands of other people. We're not special, and neither is Richardson. What sets Pirsig's apart was not the trip, but the philosophic approach to reconciling modern life with the esoteric dimension of essential Quality in a masterful and through way. As I began to read read Richardson's account, it just felt like a stylistic homage, without much uniquely interesting substance, and just made me jealous that he spoke to Pirsig's family.A 2008 NPR review of Richardson's review hinted at this lack of substance. Of his work:"He did it in 2004, visiting the places and meeting many of the people Pirsig mentioned. He even wrote a manuscript about it, but no publisher was interested. Then he showed it to a friend."And he read it and said, 'You know what's missing from your book, Mark? It's you don't even touch on Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. You don't tell me anything about Robert Pirsig. Zen and the Art is the elephant in the room,'" Richardson recalled."Of course no publisher was interested unless a substance of the original was interwoven within it. There's nothing there that isn't better illuminated by reading the original work yourself, and taking your own trip.

Loved this book .. Carried me back to my 3 readings of ZAMM (yep ...just like the author ... took me 3 tries to get thru the original).My only criticisms are two >> 1) No mention of the teaching method of "Chautauqua lectures" .. Which was the technique Pirsig used throughout the original book ... And 2) No discussion of "Gumption Traps" .. My favorite lecture of the entire ZAMM ... !!!

If you read the original zen book then this may prove fascinating reading. Following the trail of the original zen journey is the sort of Sentimental thing I'd be prone to do, I don't live in USA so this is the next best thing for me.great reading about him meeting the very people who mr pirsig met on his original journey. Book have an interesting insight to the personality of Mr Pirsig too, who turned out to have a seemingly different personality to the one I thought he had from my reading of the original over 20 years ago.

Bought as a gift for a friends birthday who had this book in the 70's but lost it.It's not about motorbike maintenance at all but how life is.

An easy read after Zen & the Art.

I bought this as a companion to the original novel, to help me gain an insight into WHY, and it was handy for the paper I was writing. From the beginning to the end, you can't put it down. Twists abound...

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