Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance -

Robert M. Pirsig

Vintage

1991

424 páginas

14h 8m

ISBN-10: 0099786400

"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 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.

Resenhas (1)

5 (Perfeito)

Great philosophic novel

In spite of the title, this book is not really about Zen Buddhism or motorcycle maintenance, it is a novel about a trip across the US, a dramatic personal experience and philosophy of values.

The story is about a man who travels across the US, riding a motorcycle, with his son and a couple of friends. As he travels, he develops ideas about technology and general attitudes towards life. He remembers facts about his own life and a mistery appears. The mistery is gradually clarified, as he develops his reflections and visits places related to his previous life.

Pirsig writes about great philosophical issues with extraordinary clarity and avoiding technical words. He does not use tiresome quotations and references, but lets us know the origin of the ideas and concepts he presents.

It is a brilliant book, that catches our attention because of the story, the mistery, the descriptios of the travel, the important ideas he explains. I have read it thoroughly various times, both in the Portuguese translations and in the English original, always with pleasure and finding new stimulus to think.