Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
"The real cycle you're working on is a cycle called 'yourself.'"One of the most important and influential books of 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 meditation on how to live better. The narrative of a father on a summer motorcycle trip across America's Northwest with his young son, it becomes a profound personal and philosophical odyssey into life's fundamental questions. A true modern classic, it remains at once touching and transcendent, resonant with the myriad confusions of existence and the small, essential triumphs that propel us forward.
What you might want to know about Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Across seventeen days in summer 1968, the narrator and his eleven-year-old son Chris ride a Honda CB77 motorcycle from Minneapolis west to Bozeman, Montana and on to the Pacific coast with their friends John and Sylvia Sutherland.
It is a fictionalized account of a real motorcycle trip Robert Pirsig took with his son Chris in 1968. The philosophical reflections and the character Phaedrus are autobiographical.
The narrative passages are accessible, but the philosophy chapters dive deep into Greek thought, quality, and rationality. Many readers describe it as a lifetime book to revisit.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was written by Robert M. Pirsig, published in 1974 by Okean.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is 421 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance takes most readers 6 to 9 hours to finish.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a standalone novel by Robert M. Pirsig, not part of a series.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
