Rating: 
Summary: Courageous and Unforgettable
Review: Many of my thoughts keep returning to ZAMM. It has been a while since I read it last, and I am going to read it again. I have spent the last couple of hours reading reviews here, and it's evident that there is wide disparity in how readers receive this book. One has to wonder what that says. Is Mr. Pirsig onto something or not? Personally, I am confident that he is, and the way that it is done is so masterful as to be almost magical. At times, I can spot something that doesn't ring quite true, but it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter because the truth that he is trying to tell is still there.Multiple themes are woven together: the ride across some of America's best with his only son and the relationship that's theirs alone, a narrative about insanity through the clouded memory of someone that had/has been labeled as such, an examination of western philosophy and its influence on western thought, an alternative eastern perspective, and more. For many of us that are writing reviews here, Persig begins to unlock a whole realm of possibility. The possibility that awareness of existence (quality, truth, God, whatever you want to call it) may be approachable by non-rational means. Neither logic, anlaysis nor the scientific method may provide the ultimate path. And, without these familar touchstones we are threatened to lose our certainty. Accepting this possibility is both liberating and frightening! It is to stand on the threshold of . . . In a sense, it's a simular place in thought to where the world stood when Columbus discovered the new world. To be willing to follow Persig with Phaedrus and participate in his Chautauquas is an adventure in courage. One must look into the frailities of our own sanity. It is tempting to deny to oneself this vulnerability, and doing so may render this book meaningless and shallow. However, the participative reader finds the captivation of an "Alice in Wonderland." Not a text, not a novel, not fiction. It is an autobiography! It's hard to believe that it's true, and the book ends before the story ends -- just like life and the reality that endures. Robert Pirsig is a hero to have gone so far in pondering the "deep channels", and then in sharing his bounty with us. I'm going to read it again. Thank you Robert.
Rating:
Summary: "What is Good and what is not good, Phaedrus ..."
Review: What is good and what is not good, Phaedrus ... need we ask ourselves these things?" Robert Pirsig is HUMAN, and blasts this feeling all over his novel. His duel against the ghost of Phaedrus is an arduous spiritual and intellectual conundrum. His dreams take you on a quest for truth ... about himself, and what it means to be alive. Pirsig's story about a man who comes to find his true self is a story of eloquence, which page by page, reveals a little more of not only the character (and therefore the writer), but also of YOURSELF. His story runs along a journey which encompasses his the grand West along with his son Chris and two friends: John and Sylvia, whom he cannot understand at times. The physical journey however is not even close to the importance of the spiritual and mental journey that Pirsig underwent, and in so doing makes you an active partcipant of the glory of self-discovery. It's a story about losing frustrations over intellectual deceptions, and hidden angers against philosophers, and against the screaming voice of Aristotle through the ages embodied in the division of knowledge into a set spectrum. It's about understanding something which is outside the normal realm of comprehension, a place where chaos exists because there is nothing to explain things with. He needs to find a new Rationality. But overall, as Pirsig invites you to be a speccial member of his mystical METANOIA (rebirth), the participation is caustic, and inaugurates you upon your own journey ... on "a motorcycle called yourself." This is one of those books that you'll remember when you're on a long road trip or driving home, the kind of book that you'll tell your grandchildren about over and over again. It 's the kind of book that will make you remember it as you go to bed. Frankly, this book changed the way I look at my life and the people around me. If you give it an honest chance, I think it will do the same for you. And generally, that's a very good thing. Enjoy, and Take Scheduled Care of Your Bike!
Rating: 
Summary: written by a madman
Review: The worst book I have ever read! I had been told how great this book is and felt compelled to read it myself. What a waste of money and time. I would give it "0" stars but this does not allow that option. I don't need 380 pages to explain that madness makes no sense. I got absolutely no meaning from the book. I will never spend another dime on another book written by Robert Pirsig, ever.
Rating:
Summary: A classic
Review: Robert Pirsig has written a book that is standing the test of time. It is both a dramatic and philosophical triumph. Pirsig begins his journey with an observation: his traveling companions, John and Sylvia, are strangely alienated from the technological world from which they derive so much benefit. John will not even consider maintaining his own motorcycle. Many Americans are just like them. Why? Pirsig traces the answer to the Greeks, specifically Plato and Aristotle who, he argues, conceived a system of thought in which beauty is severed from functionality (as if the engine of the motorcycle is somehow disconnected from the shiny chrome machine we see on the highway.) Functionality or "classic" thought became less attractive to us than "romantic" thought or beauty. Plato and Aristotle, Pirsig argues, committed a murder that their adherents have covered up ever since. The victim was quality. That is the philosophical issue in a nutshell. The story's high drama revolves around Pirsig's rediscovery of "Phaedrus," the person he had been before his manic exploration of quality literally drove him mad. One of the book's powerful ironies is that the deeper the protagonist digs into his forgotten past, the stronger his identification with the persona of Phaedrus and the more he isolates himself from Chris, who is frightened by his father's deep silences and the "return" of Phaedrus' ghost. In short, his very attempt to tear down the divide between quality and our lives diminished the quality of his relationship with his son, at least for a time. The larger issue remains: to the extent that an appreciation for quality does not inform our lives, we are less understanding, less excellent, less civilized and more alienated from ourselves and our neighbors. Viewed this way, the absence of quality is the absence of God. When Pirsig applies this critique to modern-day culture, he strikes familiar yet disturbing chords. Pirsig describes "primary" culture as the mass-produced television shows, pop music, consumer goods and products that in superficial ways bind us together. The more we embrace this "primary" culture, the less we are involved in the real communities around us and the lonelier we become. Pirsig contrasted the loneliness he experienced in urban, crowded environments with the peace he felt when riding his motorcycle through the open fields of the Midwest. "The explanation, I suppose, is that the physical distance between people has nothing to do with loneliness. It's psychic distance, and in Montana and Idaho the physical distances are big but the psychic distances between people are small." He continues: "I think if we are going to reform the world, and make it a better place to live in, the way to do it is not with talk about relationships of a political nature, which are inevitably dualistic, full of subjects and objects and their relationship to one another; or with programs full of things for other people to do.... The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there. Other people can talk about how to expand the destiny of mankind. I just want to talk about how to fix a motorcycle. I think what I have to say has more lasting value." Today, we take discussion of quality for granted: Total Quality Management, the Pursuit of Excellence, Synchronicity -- an entire genre of business and spiritual literature revolves around the concept. Tom Peters, Steven Covey, Peter Senge and Max DePree are among the management gurus who circle the globe to engage in "quality" talk. If we have not fully digested Pirsig's critique, we have at least acknowledged the premise of his argument -- a culture that quits caring will not long endure, economically or spiritually.
Rating: 
Summary: Reread it as a parent
Review: I don't get it. All of this praise for a book with a misogynistic, selfish a-hole for a main character? A road trip with your child is something to be savored between the two; yet I remember reading only two or three conversations between them. Granted, it's difficult to talk while riding a motorcycle, but you have to get off of it sometimes. And one of the few conversations is when Chris is told people are saying that he has mental/emotional problems. When you think of everything the poor kid had to go through with that nutcase of a father, I don't think Chris is the one with the problems. The book is not about philosophy; it's the rantings of a schizzo whose parenting skills make Joan Crawford look like June Cleaver.
Rating:
Summary: I'd give it NO stars, if possible.
Review: Nothing to do with Zen. Almost nothing to do with motorcycles. And contains more ancient philosophy than a college text. Some say ZaMM was autobiographical. I hope to God that it wasn't. I read it over 15 years ago and HATE-HATE-HATED the book!!! Between the seemingly endless volumes of philosophy, that lead character was so haunted by Phraedus and his quest for "good" and "truth" and "beauty" that he never opened his eyes to appreciate the world that motorcycling or life in general was bringing to him. In the first night or two of camping, his son complained of stomach problems. He ignored the kid, "Go take care of it, son" and then casually mentioned to the other couple that "His doctors say it's psychological." No wonder the other couple took off on their own way. The guy was a total A$$ and a BAD FATHER! It was a classic example of how his madness made his entire family dysfunctional, and small wonder he wasn't liked by friends that he tried to make. I slammed that book down several dozen times because I was so angry with him. (But I was determined to finish it.) I won't spoil the end for you, but no wonder THAT happens! And I'm sure the lesson he learned was only temporary... As you can see, he still makes my blood boil. On a sad note: Robert Pirsig's son, Chris, was stabbed to death in SF, coming out of a Zen temple in 1979. I wish with all my heart that he played a more important role in his father's real life than he did in his book.
Rating:
Summary: saved the best for last
Review: At first, I picked up this novel because i was curious as to what it was about. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance practices the zen it professes. It was reading for one of my classes, but the professor decided to teach another book instead. For this I am highly grateful. It definately wouldn't have had the impact it has had on me if I were required to read it. I wouldn't have paid as much attention to what it had to say. It is a book that must read itself. You can't pick it up and force yourself to read it. It should be savored like a moist piece of tiramisu. I found that at some points I had a hard time reading some of the philosophy, and that was when i needed to put the book down and get a fresh start on it the next day. Pirsig does a fantastic job at building up the plot and the theory until it all finally lets loose on the second to last page (before the afterward). I say that if you begin reading it and don't like it, put it down, give it some time, pick up where you left off, and you might get something out of it.
Rating:
Summary: oddball book
Review: "Zen and the Art.." is certainly a different kind of book. Personally, I couldn't get thru the entire novel. At pg 248, I just gave up. Phaedrus' rants about "Quality" are just horrible. It does give some good insights, no doubt about that; however, the author seems to take odd paths and use the novel with some propaganda means as well. (for ex. Sylvia and John need technology but can't work with it/understand it). This novel is different from others I have read, but a good read if you're up to the challenge. I would say give it a try up to 150 pgs. if you don't like it after that, then quit because you're not going to like the rest of the novel at all.
Rating: 
Summary: Good but not accurate
Review: This book is certainly a good book that engages one at many levels. And i'll agree with the other reviews of it generally, but i would just like to point out that the view he puts forth of what Zen is, of what the Phaedrus (by Plato) is about and who the sophists were is completely off base. His ideas are good but where he says he gets the ideas from is just poor study of the sources.
Rating:
Summary: What a high Quality book....
Review: This is a brilliant piece of work. Although the book teaches a new way to look at reality, is not however new to the Eastern mind. Pirsig's notion of Quality is what Lao Tzu talked about 2600 years ago in the Tao Te Ching. Pirsig does mention this, however, later on a lot of the theories he comes up with, which are derived from Quality/the Tao, can be found in the Chuang Tzu, which is obvious that he hadn't read when he wrote ZATAOMM. How can this book change the way you see the world? It can surely expand your mind. Religions tend to tell people that if you don't believe in X then you go to hell. And atheists think that all this God stuff is a figment of man's mind. What the Taoists and Pirsig argue is that Mythos, becomes reality when it is embedded in a society's "a priori" notions. The concept of "a priori" intellectualization means that we are all programmed (over time) to interpret a certain relative reality...and therefore the Christians and an African tribe that worships the sun, are BOTH living in a 100% real (relative to them) reality. No one is right or wrong. If we live and understand Quality/Tao, the undefined/pre-intellectual underlying reality, from which all diverse myriad realities come from, we can respect all religions, nations, ideas, opinions, and creatures. Who says are reality is more real that an ameba's? We can also finally join the hands of scientists (the classics) and the artists (the romantics) - and melt the object and subject into one entity. It is too bad Pirsig never wrote an academic book, because even though this is studied in Universities, it is still classified as an autobiographical novel. Get this book.
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