Zen and Now: On the Trail of Robert Pirsig and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

by Mark Richardson

Part travelogue, part meditation on an author and his work, Zen and Now is a tribute to a beloved American book and the landscape that inspired it.

Since it was first published in 1974, Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance has become a modern classic, a beautifully constructed blend of travel narrative and philosophical inquiry that has moved generations of readers. One of those readers was journalistMarkRichardson, who after rediscovering the book at middle age, decided to retrace Pirsig’s journey. Fromthe back of his own motorcycle, Richardson investigates what happened to the reclusive Pirsig, his family, and the people described in the book in the years after its surprising success.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Travel, Biography, Memoir, Motorcycle, Audiobook

275 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Librarian note: There is more than one author by this name on goodreads.

Reviews

[Jerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I first read Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, I felt somewhat bewildered. I loved his passion, I loved the intensity of his relationships and his beliefs about life. And yet, I felt he was over his head, trying to build sanity on shaky ground. He desperately tried to shore up that foundation with his ideas of quality, but if he succeeded in solidifying the foundation, I for one was never convinced. I was prepared to let Zen and the Art of Motorcycle maintenance slide into my hazy past, when I recently came across a memoir, Zen and Now by Mark Richardson, which offered to give me a guided tour of the earlier book. I jumped at the chance. I’m glad I did. Now, after reading Zen and Now, I feel vastly more understanding of Pirsig’s book, and I had a lovely journey with Richardson at the same time.

Zen and Now is also a motorcycle ride, following as closely as possible to Pirsig’s original route, woven with a fun, intricate, and entertaining mix of Richardson’s own observations about life, motorcycles, small town American life, and a few other things. This interwoven structure is one of my favorite things about the book. Oh, one more thing. It was a sort of recounting of Richardson’s own mid-life crisis, and in a clever twist, his angst mirrored the soul searching pressure that drove Pirsig to hit the road. The book turned out to be a splendid meditation on creativity and problem-solving, sanity and insanity.

[Gerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

While Robert Pirsig was open in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, about his personal life and the effect it had on his loved ones, he spoke from a selfish state of detachment. Mark Richardson, through his interviews and letter exchanges with the Pirsig family (as well as others) exposes the price that Robert, Nancy, Ted and Chris paid to sustain Robert in his mighty quest.

In the end, Zen and Now, and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, are books about dealing with life with the deck of cards that has been dealt each of us. Neither author is, nor claims to be, a perfect person, but neither made attempts to hide his weaknesses, an each plowed ahead to accomplish the goals he set for himself. That message of moving forward with our weaknesses is an important lesson for anyone to learn.

One last comment regarding the way that people opened up to Mark, says a lot about him and about life in rural America. I was impressed with the efforts he spoke about in the afterword, to keep up with those he befriended while on his journey.

[Jonas · Rating 3 out of 5]

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. Though I learned a few things about Robert Pirsig's life that I didn't know before and discovered that I had misunderstood the phaedrus character entirely.

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mark Richardson takes to the road on a cycle, following the path of Robert Pirsig in his now-classic philosophical book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Richardson outlines Pirsig's struggles as he shares his own.

It's a book for every fan of ZAMM.

[Jim Coughenour · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's something about reading a book while you're sick, a strange dislocation that both concentrates the mind and sets the imagination adrift. For the last couple days I've been home with a bad cold, reading Zen and Now – pausing only for another pot of awful herbal tea or a richly-layered sneeze.

Mark Richardson's book is the account of a "Pirsig pilgrim" – someone who hops on a motorcycle and religiously follows the itinerary from Minnesota to San Francisco mapped out in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I'm old enough to remember buying the cheap Bantam paperback of that book when it appeared in the mid-70s, and like thousands of others, I completely succumbed to its spell. I read it again back in the 90s and the old magic was still there.

So when I saw Zen and Now on the new books table at Get Lost (a great little travel bookstore on Market), I immediately snapped it up. Now, having just finished reading it through a haze of antihistamines, I can only describe it as a rubbing – the kind of homage people pay to tombstones. All the way through the book I had the sense of reading Pirsig through Richardson. But little of the magic transferred.

That's not to say the book doesn't have its charms. Richardson writes with a dedicated intensity, but there's also something melancholy about someone living so determinedly in someone else's shadow. Speaking of shadows, there is one that definitely emerges from the book – Chris Pirsig, the troubled 11-year-old boy in the book who spends the journey staring at the sullen back of his father, a man more interested in his monomania than his son. Chris was murdered in 1979, at 23, only a couple blocks away from where I live. I rarely walk by the Zen Center without a twinge of sadness, remembering him – a sorrow Richardson's book made even more intense.

[John Fredrickson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book parallels the topics and structure of the Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZAOMM) book on numerous levels. It is a combination of history, spiritual memoir and travelogue, and it works on these planes, though not as well as the original.

The author traces the route that Pirsig traveled on his motorcycle with as much fidelity as could be done. He clearly had researched the book and the author to an immense degree. During his replication of the original trip, the author meets and stays with people from the ZAOMM book along the way (he also attempted to interview Pirsig , but Pirsig refused). Discussions with the original ZAOMM characters adds to one's understanding of ZAOMM.

The style of this book is quite similar to ZAOMM in that the author intersperses commentary of the trip and the landscape with attention paid to the running of the motorcycle and problems that arise in its performance and integrity. This running commentary does not work as well as in the original ZAOMM, since Pirsig uses the motorcycle as a springboard to discuss philosophy - this book does discuss Zen and philosophy along the way, but it does so in a more tangential fashion.

Another parallel in the two books is in the spiritual memoir arena. The author is clearly thinking through relationship issues with his kids and wife (as he drives away from them), but these issues do not feel like they have the force in them that Pirsig had with his son, and this 'parallel' feels unconvincing.

I enjoyed this book, though it felt somewhat forced at times. One interesting takeaway for me is that it may be time to give Lila another chance at a re-read. The author discusses the Lila book a couple of times during his trip, and has made me wonder whether there is more to that book than I perceived when I read it a long time ago.

One caveat for readers pondering whether to read this book is that while ZAOMM reads as a realistic personal biography, this book explores where the elements of fiction come in. Having read this book, the reader will have a transformed understanding of the original work itself as well as of Pirsig.

[Erik Beyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Would you listen to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance again? Why?
Yes, I would listen again. I may take a listen to the dramatized version to provide a greater audible depth into the story. The story of father and son I was able to follow, and even at times made me sad. The philosophical elements of the book went pretty deep at times, and that would be my purpose for reading (listening) again. I don't know if I necessarily got any real value from this book, but rather it has inspired me into deeper thought and personal study. Maybe that is the intent of the book. In the last chapter of the audio book, it takes place 10-years after the release of the book and provides deeper insight to their life after the story. I would listen to that chapter again, by itself.

What other book might you compare Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance to and why?
I don't know that I could. I haven't read or listened to many books in my life. This one is so unique. I do wish I could find more like it, though. I have always liked the personal journey type stories.

Have you listened to any of Michael Kramer’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
I don't believe so. He did well, but it is noticeable and older recording taken from cassette. His voice can be droning at times, but after you get used to it and put that voice the main characters image in your mind, it works.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
At times I chuckled, and times I felt a little emotional. Didn't actually cry.

Any additional comments?
This was taken from a cassette recording, so you can hear the other side of the tape in reverse, just enough to notice, but not enough to be annoying. This would be worth redoing at some point, unabridged, dramatized a little. It could draw a younger audience to the book.

Great story, though.

[Johnsergeant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Narrated by Buck Schirner
Unabridged: 9 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's Summary
In 1968, Robert Pirsig and his son, Chris, made the cross-country motorcycle trip that was the basis for Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, a book that has inspired generations with its searching personal and philosophical narrative.

After rereading the book at the onset of middle age, reporter Mark Richardson tuned up his old Suzuki dirt bike and became a "Pirsig Pilgrim", one of the legions of fans who regularly retrace the author's route from Minneapolis to San Francisco.

Richardson, like Pirsig before him, traveled the lonely roads of the American West, where he encountered many of the same people and places that inspired Pirsig. Richardson also corresponded with the reclusive author and his legendary editor, James Landis, and uncovered new details about Pirsig's mental illness, his unhappy celebrity, and his struggle to put his life together after the brutal murder of his son in 1979.

Published to coincide with the 40th anniversary of Pirsig's trip, Zen and Now is an intellectual adventure, a meditation on the values of a classic book, and an inquiry into its relevance to the complex and bewildering world we inhabit today.

[Mike Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a first-person account of a journalist who follows in Robert Pirsig's... well not footsteps, tire marks I suppose. Pirsig is the author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, a partly fictional account of Pirsig's motorcycle trip across the U.S. with his teenage son. The main thrust of the original book was Pirsig's assertion that Quality (with a capital "Q") was at the heart of the meaning of life. In short, if a job's worth doing, it's worth doing well.



Richardson, the new author, recounts his own journey, and along the way explains how Pirsig came to write his book and what happened to him after it was published. For much of the trip, Richardson is a bit out of sorts. He likes the idea of Quality, but something seems to be missing. In the end, Richardson realizes there's something more important than Quality, and it appears that Pirsig found that out, too, in his post-Zen life.



Richardson is very honest about his experiences and feelings during the rather solitary adventure, and I think his conclusions are valid. I just don't think you need to ride thousands of miles to figure it out. Still, an easy, entertaining read, although it will undoubtedly help if you've read Pirsig.

[Jamie Huston · Rating 5 out of 5]

I's a sucker for stuff like this--celebrations of books and midlife crisis memoirs. This one is pretty strong in both departments!

It often reminded me of the essays of Charles Kurault, who traveled and spotlighted the people he met. Richardson does the same, and those encounters play heavily into the value he gets from his trip.

The lessons he gets are a bit artificial--so much so that I wonder how much of it (the strained family relationships and ultimate reconnecting with them) are baloney. He brings up how much Pirsig embellished the emotional elements of his original book, and it's not hard to imagine Richardson doing the same. Richardson even tries to shoehorn in a motif based on an eagle, and it really doesn't work.

But I'm still giving the book five stars! I read it with excitement and appreciation. It's solid and thoughtful and important, if taken at face value. I really appreciated how much depth this added to my understanding of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, the book and the real life history behind it. I need to go back and read that again.

And now I want to read Pirsig's sequel Lila, too!

[Gary Lang · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the sort of rumination on popular culture artifacts with a recent (<=30 years) history that is enormously popular right now with boomers. It's an easy read. When you are done you won't be sure why you read it, but it's nice to hear how other people were inspired/affected by ZMM. I think most people who have read this book in the past are not as inspired as they were about it, so it's interesting that it's held his interest this intensely and to hear what he concludes from holding onto this interest over the years.

He's definitely a Pirsig fan-boy, which is a good and bad thing, making for an interesting read.

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had fun reading this book. Richardson explored biographical and philosophical ideas from Robert Pirsig’s books - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and also Lila - by following Pirsig’s route on his own motorcycle.

Not only was Richardson’s personal story well told and insightful, the story of Robert Pirsig’s, life was told with compassion and great detail, the result of intensive research.

There is a great lesson in this book about the art of reading. It is that understanding a book just begins inside the pages and greatly increases when we start integrating an author’s ideas deeply into our lives.

[Charlie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mark Richardson retraces Robert Pirsig historic trek in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" to discover for himself the meaning of life.

I read "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" about five years ago and was mesmerized by the idea of Quality and how it pertains to life. I was also confused by the characters and their relationships. This book explained to me the relationships but left out most of the Philosophy which is the weakness of this book.

[Don · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ordinarily I would not find a book about motorcycling and long distance travels very interesting, but from the moment I took this volume off the library shelf and started leafing through it I started getting deja vu experinces. I had read Pirsig's book back in the 70's sometime in conjunction with some humanities studies at the University of Minnesota that also mentioned the Erl King poem by Goethe. I had not followed up this initial enjoyment of the original book, and had no sense that it was important to do so. Pirsig's book was a classic, but it had long ago ceased to be relevant to my life experiences, which had moved past that period in my life. At that time I recall also having read and enjoying Christian Zen: A Way of Meditation By William Johnston and Reflections from the North Country by Sigurd Olson. I was also busy writing the haiku of despair. This grew out of my reading of Hyatt Waggoner's informative study, American Poets: From the Puritans to the Present, where I learned about the American Transcendent Despair tradition. One of the haiku related to an incident when I was eight years old where I suffered a broken nose on the playground at school:

Cross-eyed invalid
Bee at the end of his nose:
Baseball bat stung!

Of course, there was no bee. That is the first occurrence in my work of what turned out to be an ongoing symbol of the bee in a bottle, of which I eventually became free of. It is the despair that one feels that accentuates the fears that one feels about leaving your private world and attempting to enter the larger sphere of actions. That sounds very psychological, but in reality the despair was always there but subconsciously. That is how I would describe it. I knew I was different in some way, but not until later when I found out later at age 16 that my nose had been broken when I was eight years old, I finally knew exactly what that physical difference was. It became part of my consciousness or awareness. This is what enlightenment is about, as far as my reading about Zen and nature told me. That's why it all seemed to make perfect sense to me at the time. I was enlightened, but no joy bells started ringing. I needed something more, which is where going back to church comes in. Church had really been special to me in my youth. That is where I got my love for music and poetry and the Bible. This led to my own invention of Egoverbs, also during this same period. Egoverbs are proverbs in the first person, i.e.: I (verb) (something). So this period is not a mystery to me. I recall what was going on in my life as a student and a neophyte practitioner of creative literature.

It was 1978 when I visited a Zen shendo near Lake Harriet in Minneapolis and did zazen. I had no idea that Pirsig was the one who got Katagari Roshi to come to town to start the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center. It was there that I practiced spiritual exercises one evening, and later attended an actual Zen Buddhism service on a lovely spring day. It was fun to listen to the robed persons chanting Ooooooom in the lotus position on a rug, but this did not help me to find that for which I had prepared and come looking for, that I later understood as the search for a deeper Christianity. I had dokusan with Katagari sometime afterward where he advised me to let go of the psychical experiences I told him about. I felt that God was attempting to speak to me through them. I didn't go back to the Center again after receiving the spiritual counseling. There no longer seemed to be a purpose for doing so.

I eventually went back to my childhood Baptist church early in 1979 (Jan. 14th, the day of a superbowl) after I finished my studies. Nothing seemed to happen right away, so I quit attending the church at some point. About 40 days later, I experienced another strange bee sting event while delivering community newspapers on March 19th. This seemed like God urging me to give it one more try. Instead of just going to the morning service, I decided to go to a Sunday school class with persons of my own age. It became obvious to me then that I had to make some contacts to overcome my shyness. Just warming a pew wasn't going to be of any use. Once again nothing seemed to happen. I felt the despair flooding my soul again, but then I met this pretty Swedish girl in the library afterwards and she was of a very encouraging nature. She promised to help me overcome my shyness that I found myself confessing to her and I knew that she would keep her promise because of her wonderful spirit. The next day I felt like I was in love, but by Tuesday's arrival I realized that it was just an infatuation. On Wednesday I found myself composing in my head an inspired song called I'll Be There When the Morning Comes about this experience which began with the words:

People keep on hiding, never seeking, never finding;
Blind men keep on running, never see the future coming,
It will be there in the morning when it comes.

And the chorus:

I will be there in the morning when it comes
I will stand there amidst the chosen ones
I will be there in the morning when it comes
Yes, I'll be there, yes, I'll be there

On Thursday it had turned into a fantastical or fanatical conceit. This was the moment when I told God that I didn't want to be told whom to be in love with and that I preferred to do my own choosing of whom to date. That emotion was so sudden and strong that I felt the violence of a sword passing through my brain. It immediately went completely numb. I prayed to God to have my feelings restored, and eventually normalcy came back but I also felt a hot liquid dripping at the back of my skull after this, without cessation. That Sunday I returned to the library in the hopes of seeing the same girl again and inform her of the pain in my head that had occurred during the week and that I had no notion of how to make stop burning, but she didn't come that time. It happened to be April Fool's Day, and a special service later that evening had been announced with the theme of Christmas in April to celebrate some missionaries who were being commissioned to go to Ecuador as medics. I debated whether I should go back to church while in my abject state, but finally I pushed myself away from the dinner table, saying goodbye to my stay at home parents, and began the long trek back to the church, still not certain that I even wanted to be there. At the half way point, a chemical reaction happened in my brain and I felt like I was walking on a cloud for the remainder of my walk. It felt better than anythng I have ever felt before. When I got to church, everyone was singing Christmas songs and I knew all the words. I felt ecstatic and the pain was gone. The girl I met in the library came up to me and told me she was moving from her parent's in Stillwater to the vacated house of the missionaries while they were away. There she would live with two other girls from my Sunday school class and that they would soon be starting up a cell group of other people of our age group. I actually helped this girl move her things. Everything changed then. At age 27, I first had a real hope that my life was going to change in some important ways. I also got some counseling with a church psychiatist who set me up with the State Dept. of Vocational Rehabitation (DVR) for job placement. I was put on a waiting list to go to the Multi-Resource Center (MRC) to take aptitude tests and make decisions on occupational goals. It finally came down to a choice between getting training to become a janitor or a key punch operator. I choose the latter, but upon completion of the program finding work was hard to do. The market was already flush with key punch operators and I started to wish I had applied for janitor training. There was a residence for the handicapped that was located near the church which I knew about but never considered myself as a suitable candidate to work there. Then God put this guy at the bus stop that I started having a conversation with about his special shoes. That's when I got inspired to apply at the residence. First they offered me a janitor job, but I told them I would prefer to work with the residents, helping them on the late shift. I put about 6 to bed, and then got the same 6 up and dressed in the morning before leaving. In between there was time for reading or writing. For this initial experience, I eventually ended up finding work as a PCA (personal care attendant), helping people with cerebral palsy in their own homes, a special program of the state that I was one of the first persons to be grandfathered into, as they called it. This job lasted for the next 12 years, and sometime later I actually became a janitor for a church by my apartment. This wasn't as bad as I had imagined it would be. I got to practically live at the church, get free eats from events that I was scheduled to work, and take part in a lot of church activities. It felt very special.

Simultaneously, I also did temporary data entry jobs during these times. My first data entry position was with the City Water Dept in billing, where I typed all the quarterly and monthly meter readings. At a later time I worked for the Minnesota Press Club as a general office assistant where I met Paul Wellstone in person. For four years I became the main typist for PR Newswire Sports Score covering seasonal (fall and winter) high school sports, sending my scores, schedules, stats, and weekly standing via satellite to New York (AP) to be bounced back to local and out state media. All these jobs really built up my confidence in my abilities. And there were many other data entry jobs that I did that I don't have time to mention here.

I'm not sure what would have happened to me if I had not listened to the spirit of God and never got the chance to do the church thing one more time. I probably would have ended up in a nut house. It certainly wasn't an easy transition in the beginning. One of the side effects of engineering a coming out for myself was having the physical shakes in public. I would experience them for about 20 minutes while attending a church service, but gradually they became less and less until those too permanently went away and I became wholly comfortable while interacting with others in public. I had made it through my trials and people were so nice to me in the process. I felt the love of Christ enfolding me within my pain and sadness. My differences with the world seemed smaller, less inhibiting to me and with less cause to be concerned about. Other people had hurts too, I was discovering. I wasn't alone.

In initially glancing through this book, I learned that Chris Pirsig was murdered outside the Zen Center in San Francisco in November 1979. I came to realize that Robert, the local author who was his father, had a connection with Katagiri in the starting up of the MZMC in Minneapolis, but it wasn't until I reached page 168 that I learned that the Greek word for virtue is arete. I had called the period in 1978 "Virtue", but didn't clearly see the philosophical connotations. But that is basically what I was doing, learning about philosophy as I was also studying Art, Religion and Science. Those were the 4 things I was deeply interested at the time. But in the process I nurtured a greater appreciation for my love of mathematics. I now study the book of Genesis and find ways to make sense of the numbers, especially in regard to the Great Flood period. It never ceases to amaze me all the discoveries I've made in this regard in the past 4 years. Every day gives me another problem to solve. I consider myself a Christian Humanist now, and my special fields are the epics of Homer, Virgil, Dante and Milton, for which I have gained many insights over the years, and continue to evolve new insights on.

I don't know if everyone would like this book by Richardson, but I found it very soothing and relaxing, tying together the past with the future, and making understanding things that I had forgot I knew very approachable again. I think I would read this author again. His theme is a lot bigger than truth and seeming, with a broad spectrum of life presented, all of it worth studying and learning from!

Three books of Katagiri Roshi's teachings are available through bookstores:

Returning to Silence: Zen Practice in Daily Life, edited by Yuko Conniff and Willa Hathaway. Boston: Shambhala, 1988.
You Have to Say Something: Manifesting Zen Insight, edited by Steve Hagen. Boston: Shambhala, 1998.
Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time, edited by Andrea Martin. Boston: Shambhala, 2007.

[AJW · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable read for a number of reasons.

Firstly, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is one of my all-time favourite books. Very few people I know share my enthusiasm for Robert Pirsig’s philosophical book so it’s nice to spend time riding pillion with somebody who shares my enthusiasm for the book.

Secondly, I started riding a motorbike for the first time in my life last month. Now all the bits about engines, clutches, checking oil levels and different road conditions roar into life for me.

Thirdly, for decades now I’ve wanted fly to the United States for a vacation and ride along the route taken by the Pirsigs. But as the years circle by like a mileometer (or odometer) I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to find the money or the time to do this dream trip. This book gives me the next best version. It was great to be able to trace the route more accurately using the place names and road numbers provided in this book.

Fourthly, there’s lots of biographical details about Robert Pirsig, his family and friends. Some details I already knew from the 25th Anniversary edition, but plenty I didn’t know.

All in all, a very satisfying read.

[William Schram · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zen and Now is a travelogue wherein reporter Mark Richardson follows the same roads as Robert Pirsig in his book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Richardson includes a handy map at the beginning of the book. Pirsig wrote his classic in 1974, but not much has changed in the area. A few locations are boarded up and overgrown with weeds.

Richardson tried to contact the colorful characters who brought the book to life, and a few were willing to share their stories. One or two of the people were resentful towards Pirsig due to how the book portrayed them. Other people from the book welcomed the attention it garnered. As for Robert Pirsig, he became a recluse and avoids his fans.

As for Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, the message is more crucial than ever in our modern society. Pirsig wanted to emphasize finding values as something he dubbed a quality. With all our disposable items nowadays, no one takes the time to repair something carefully. I watch videos of people repairing electronics, and it looks rewarding. It may be expensive, but not if you do it yourself.

I enjoyed the book. Thanks for reading my review, and see you next time.

[James Lyke · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had no expectations when I read this book, other than its connection to ZAMM, which I enjoyed but plowed through too quickly and too long ago. I agree with the sentiment of most of the other 3-star reviews (middling homage, bereft of any newer value added). The main value in reading this is kindling an interest in re-reading ZAMM and taking on Lila. I appreciated learning more about Pirsig's own inner genius, his journey and struggles. I admittedly am drawn in for some reason by the long, solo journey, especially on foot. I like reading about the journey and the mostly self-inflicted wounds (running out of gas, relying on AAA -- which was at that time useless for motorcycles -- instead of prepping a better motorcycle emergency EDC kit), along with his occasional encounters. But if it were possible to give fractional ratings, I'd go more for 2.5 stars than 3.5.

[Marty · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book offers a great combination. A recounting of the authors adventure on his motorcycle following the route that Robert Pirsig took in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, a partial retelling and analysis of the original book, and a where are they now look at many of the original characters and locations from Zen and the Art.

I really enjoyed Zen and the Art when I initially read it. It has been several years and my memory of the book has started to fade. The way Richardson wove the original story into the book was both compelling and provided a rekindling of the original story in my mind.

Richardson's own adventure was entertaining. An account of the trials and tribulations he faced, the people he met, and a bit of a look at his own emotions throughout the ride. His telling of his own story came across as very genuine and you could almost imagine being in his shoes.

[Brian Shell · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I enjoyed this re-creation of the Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance pilgrimage, I'd hoped it would have been more of a philosophical in its depth. Yet, if you're a ZAMM fan like I am, you'll like it. I do. My favorite thing about this novel is that its author (a journalist) reports on what happened to the actual life of ZAMM's author (Robert Pirsig). I found that reporting to be fascinating.

I read "Zen and Now" years ago (in 2009 and 2014) and have been re-reading it recently in 2021 due to taking a cross-country roadtrip... where I became a ghost to my past ghosts.

Thus, it's perfect reading to re-live my time on the road giving gratitude in 2014 to past mentors for my book "Gratitude Miles - 8000 Miles of Gratitude."

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recently reread Pirsig's classic and found this book while searching for more info about Pirsig. It's a fun read -- Zen & The Art-style tale of the author retracing Pirsig's journey (and meeting many of the key characters along the way while dealing with a bit of a midlife crisis and thinking back to an earlier trip.

It's a fun read. I skipped over some of the personal parts as I was reading specifically for the Pirsig info (which is helpful and very interesting). It's a fun read if you're interested in Pirsig.

[Andy Park · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book more than the actual Zen book. I appreciated the authors quest to travel the original path, as well as his goal to make sure he talk to as many people as possible, and connect with people from the original book. I also liked him looking back at Pirsig’s life.

My struggle with this book was format. I felt more of the beginning chapters were about the trip, and towards the end, it focused more on Pirsig’s life. I would have liked more balance, especially for the flow of the book.

[Ellen the Herbivore · Rating 2 out of 5]

He follows much of Pirsig's trail. From this book, I learned that Pirsig was much more messed up and awful to his family than I realized, and stunningly self-centered. Richardson comes across as rather self-centered, too. He's super snotty about not answering his wife's phone calls, which seemed needless and self-absorbed and ruined the positive feelings I had from the thoroughness of his research.

[Patrick Dunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

An engaging travelogue that takes you on a journey following in the footsteps, or tyre tracks, of Persig's original journey in ZAMM. The content centers on Richardson's experiences as a so called "Persig pilgrim" and includes many interesting autobiographical information on Persig. Recommended for any fan of ZAMM.

[Christian Durkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is not intellectually challanging like the original, but but then I don't think it's supposed to be. It's a melow rolling story with some interesting insights into the development of the original and the toll it took on RP and those around him. For someone who has read the original several times and made many assumptions, its good to hear a different perspective, cheers.

[Ciara Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was not a typical read for me. My niece likes motorcycles/ dirt bikes, so I thought I would give this a read and try to obtain some insight. It was really good for that purpose. It had to journey of life and changes that happens. Perspective. Trials of dealing with sudden obstacles. Overall, interesting read.

[Garn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. Gave a lot of interesting context to one of my favorite books.

[Jay Brara · Rating 3 out of 5]

A review of the classic journey and reflections. Skimmed it, nowhere near as engaging and philosophical as the classic.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ultra Zen Lite.

[dete · Rating 3 out of 5]

прищя ми се отново да започна Дзен и Лайла и този път да ги довърша.

[Pooja · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading it, but if felt more like a thesis of Zen and Now rather than the author's own experiences. A good one time read though!