Book Reviews and Critical Articles Testify To the Outstanding Nature of the Book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZMM).

Here You Can Discover What ZMM Is "All About" and Why You Should Read This Book!

Here are Internet Links to book reviews which show how the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance has been received by literary reviewers, both professionals and ordinary readers.

1) For each link below, I briefly explain what you will find at this link, and why I think this author offers interesting (and valid) opinions concerning ZMM.

2) Also given below is my Google search to find more information concerning the eleven professional ZMM Reviews given in Guidebook to ZMM. Search conducted 24 May 2006.

3) Also given below are links to my analysis of the Amazon ZMM Book reviews available as of Feb 2006.

The best collection of Literary Critics, (ie professional) ZMM Book Reviews of which I am aware, are given (complete) in The Guidebook to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. See Chapter Eight (p240 thru 357). This chapter has eleven literary reviews, which I list below. Also given is a Full Professional Publication Bibliography re academic works about ZMM from up thru ~1990.

The Guidebook To ZMM is available in most libraries, many bookstores, or on interlibrary loan. Here is a good review of The Guidebook to ZMM:

Here Is the Internet Information I Could Find Concerning The Eleven Literary Reviews, By the Eleven Literary Critics In the Above Mentioned The Guidebook To ZMM. Of course you may find more information by using Google Books or Amazon.com "Search Inside".

1) ''Good Trip',' by Robert M Adams, New York Review of Books, 13 June 1974.

2) "A Fine Fiction", by W T Lhamon, New Republic, 29 June 1974.

3) "Uneasy Rider", by George Steiner, The New Yorker, 15 April 1974.
See review excerpt at web link below.

4) "Man and Machine", by George Basalla, Science Magazine, 24 January 1975.

5) "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance'', by Una Allis, Critical Quarterly Vol 20, Autumn 1978. Not many hits for the author of this, and no web info about this review, except following article quotes several passages from it. Both links have same ZMM Review, which is itself a very good ZMM Review.

Also a slightly improved version at 202.54.91.202/pdf/gpdharmaofscience.pdf
(Now broken =http://www.nal.res.in/pages/gprzen.htm )

6) "Ringer To Sheehy To Pirsig: The 'Greening' of American Ideals of Success", by John G Cawelti, Popular Culture Vol 2 1979.

7) "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: The Identity of the ErlKong", by Thomas J Steele, Ariel Vol 17, No 4, 1979.

8) "Irony and Earnestness In Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance'', by Richard H Rodino, Critique: Studies in Modern Fiction Vol 22, 1980.

9) "The Matrix of Journeys In Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance'', by Richard H Rodino, Journal of Narrative Technique, Vol 11, 1981.

10) "Creativity, Rationality, and Metaphor In Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance'', by Jerome Bump

11) "Visual Imagery and Internal Awareness In Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance'', by Forrest B Shearon.

{Here are two excerpts from the now famous Steiner Review that launched ZMM into wide critical and public acclaim. Steiner was convinced that ZMM would be come a classic and he actively used his considerable influence in the literary world to make sure ZMM got all the attention it deserved. In many websites you will see the following widely quoted Steiner passages from his now famous ZMM Review. "It lodges in the mind as few recent novels have --- The book is inspired, original --- the narrative tact, the perfect economy of effect defy criticism. The analogies with Moby Dick are patent. Robert Pirsig invites the prodigious comparison. What more can one say?" Below I give the larger context of these passages. HSG Site Master.}

Zen and the Art {of Motorcycle Maintenance} is awkward both to live with and to write about. It lodges in the mind as few recent novels have, deepening its grip, compelling the landscape into unexpected planes of order and menace.

The narrative thread is deceptively trite. Father and son are on a motorcycle holiday, traveling from Minneapolis toward the Dakotas, then across the mountains, turning south to Santa Rosa and the Bay. Asphalt, motels, hairpins in the knife-cold of the Rockies, fog and desert, the waters dividing, then the vineyards and the tawny flanks of the sea.

Robert DeWeese, artist-in-residence {and Pirsig friend in Bozeman MT}, brings out instructions for the assembly of an outdoor barbecue rotisserie which have baffled him. The discussion flows deep. It touches on the limitations of language in regard to mechanical procedure, on machine assembly as a long-lost branch of sculpture whose organic finesse is betrayed by the inert facility of commercial blueprints, on the ghost (O shades of Descartes) that inhabits the machine. Pirsig's timing and crafting at this juncture are flawless.

By Far, the Largest Collection of Book Reviews Is At Amazon.Com. This is true for ZMM, as well as for most other books. As of Feb 2006 there were 557 ZMM reviews. By my count 70 % of these reviews are quite positive about ZMM.

However, Amazon is also where you will find the largest collection of negative ZMM reviews!! You will see that the persons who have these negative opinions of ZMM (19 %), just "don't get it"!! They do not discover what ZMM is really about. As you may study for yourself, most of these Negative Amazon Reviewers will say they know ZMM comes with some pretty high ratings!! But despite this,--- some how --- the virtues ZMM escapes them! And, they seem genuinely puzzled by this, they nevertheless tell us in no uncertain terms how bad ZMM is! I have studied this closely, but I can't discern what specifically these persons fail to see or why they miss the constructive parts of ZMM. This is a great puzzle to me, since so many readers, including myself see ZMM as a most valuable book! Just the same, I am certain this puzzle deserves a deep and critical study. To enhance this study, I now have MS Word Collection of All 457 Reviews available as of Feb 2006. If you want to use this collection for your own study and analysis, you may ask me for this collection (~0.5 MB). For ease of analysis, this collection of reviews has been sorted, by the number of Stars, into five separate documents. My own analysis of these reviews may be found in the next two links. If you wish to receive these documents or have any insights or comments, please send email to me: HenryG__Aiken.SC.edu.

) Psybertron Web Site has many ZMM Reviews as well as Robert Pirsig Resources. These pages are well worth considerable time and attention.!!

) Robert Pirsig Web Site, by philosopher Anthony McWatt has many Philosophy Articles And Analysis concerning ZMM, as well as many other Robert Pirsig Resources and photos. These pages are well worth considerable time and attention!!

) Tripod Dot Com Offers Many Reviews and Related Resources On Their Page "Further Explorations of Robert M. Pirsig's Metaphysics of Quality".

) This Web Site has many ZMM and Robert Pirsig Resources and Forums and is worth your time and attention!

) Another Collection of ZMM info:

Most of the Web Pages listed below were found by a Google Search for target = ( "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" + Review ) I passed over Sites, where the ZMM review were short or superficial. Most reviews were positive as you will see below. Negative reviews are also included when ever they were found. Google found a total 183,000 hits for the above criterion. Time permitted examination of only about 200 of these. (My editing comments and editing additions are indicated by a {bracket}. Omitted text portions are indicated by --- dashes.).

One of the more intelligent works of criticism on poetry, on literature, written in the last fifty years might be Colin Falck’s Myth, Truth & Literature, in which the superfluousness of literary theory is argued, convincingly. The last footnote, or final acknowledgment in that book, is to Robert M. Pirsig’s “once-acclaimed but now (it seems) almost forgotten fictional masterpiece” Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: “Much of what I have argued in {Myth, Truth & Literature} is only an intellectual elaboration of Pirsig’s fine insights,” wrote Falck.
I had read Colin Falck’s work twice yet hadn’t bothered to read Robert M. Pirsig’s book; I think because I had thought that it must lack substance and rigor, like some cult books. Works of excellence don’t give themselves away easily, and thus generally don’t become so-called "cult classics." And so I was caught unawares by Falck’s words and asked Pirsig’s publisher for a copy of Zen.

Readers Subscription Book Club with full review of ZMM.

Thanks to Professor Donald Blount for discovering the above review. Despite my interest in ZMM, Professor Blount tells me ZMM is destined to the dustbin of history. He believes there are only two authors, Shakespeare and Cervantes, who are worthy of designation "Classic". Since tells me that ZMM can hardly be worth any consideration, it is significant that he even paid attention to the above review!
So I especially thank Professor Blount for forwarding to me a Xerox Copy, despite his considerable reservations.

{Ambassador Richardson} has retained a keen interest in the evolution of scientific thought and claims to have been marked for life by reading, in the 60s, Robert Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". Before taking up this post and presenting his credentials to Kofi Annan on 3 May 2001, Mr Richardson had previously been Minister and Deputy Head of the European Commission's Delegation in Washington since October 1996. He has devoted most of his professional career to the cause of European integration, spending 23 years at the EU headquarters in Brussels.

) {In ZMM}, Whilst Several Threads Do Get Resolved, With a Real-Life Mix of Surprise and Anti-Climax, Several Remain Wonderfully Open Ended - No-Doubt Succeeding In Provoking the Thoughts {Author} Pirsig Intended.

{This Web Site has many ZMM and Robert Pirsig Resources and is worth your time and attention. }

http://www.moq.org/forum/Prathap/prathap1.html
Also a slightly improved version at 202.54.91.202/pdf/gpdharmaofscience.pdf
(Now broken =http://www.nal.res.in/pages/gprzen.htm )

And the correspondence between the landscapes traveled and the subjects discussed -- high places for spiritual stuff and deserts for the ugliness of modern life -- is so elegant as to be entirely unbearable. The ending, where the narrator fights off a bout of returning insanity, finally communicates with his son and sets the boy off on the road to disentangled manhood, is worthy of Old Hollywood, and must have quite a bit to do with the book's success. To be able to pose problems intelligently, and to solve them with schmaltz, is really quite a recipe. My main objection to Pirsig's book, I think is that it is too blithe and sentimental in its evasion of the consequences of this argument. Not that the moralists shouldn't go on moralizing, or that teachers shouldn't go on teaching. There are all kinds of useful by-products of those activities. But they could do it, perhaps, with a stronger sense of the chief potential flaw in their enterprise, which is its distressing superfluity.

This {ZMM} has the readability of popular psychology but not the shallowness, and if you've been putting it off because you were worried it was going to be too mystical, too difficult, or too proselytizing, worry no longer. Pirsig kept me interested, made me think, didn't talk down to me, and didn't annoy me, and higher praise for philosophy is rare.

I first read it {ZMM} when I was about 20, and it made a huge impact on my life. I was at a very adaptive age - and searching for direction spiritually and otherwise. It was the first word in the title "Zen" that initially attracted me. Little did I know how this book would be an important companion for me throughout my life.

Pirsig's book was a literary miracle at a time when I was the lowest point in my adult life. I've only read it once. And it changed my life. I lost my voice on the second day and lost 18 pounds in 14 days. God knows how far back my hairline receded in that time. I was on the verge of quitting every day. In November of 1996, my friend and brother, "lent" me Pirsig's tome. I read bits of this masterwork every day before I left my apartment for work. The concepts within it sustained me and gave me strength when I thought my tanks were dry.

) A Work of Art: Solaris Recommends.

The novel begins with the author and his son touring the countryside on their motorcycle with some friends . And slowly the author begins to talk about things - things which seem important to him. Why are we in such a desperate hurry all the time? Why are people running away from technology , feeling nostalgic about the good old days ? Most importantly , why have we stopped caring about our work , about what we do - like the way a careless mechanic manhandles a motorcycle? What is Quality, he wondered? These are the questions that bothered a man called Phaedrus who was a very intelligent person extremely well versed with reason and logic.

But is the time and effort {to read ZMM} well-spent? Absolutely. In a society which tricks a person into deriving self-worth from monetary income and material possessions, this book helps the reader rediscover what truly is important. In the process, the reader learns to take pride in the individual lives they live and the decisions they make.

That’s what the back cover said. It’s pretty much right. Both times I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance it had significant effects {on me}.

This book is a delight, especially the quiet ways in which it explores relationships between family members and friends, and in the way Pirsig talks about our relationship with technology, as well. There’s not a whole lot of Zen, as the intervening years have taught me. Rather, you’ll find a fair amount of philosophical rumination, relieved by the author’s gift for landscape and other descriptive writing.

My Own Thoughts On "Why Read ZMM, Are Here:

http://ww2.usca.edu/ResearchProjects/ProfessorGurr/Documents/WhyReadZMM

As Mentioned Above, the Following TWO Links Is My Guidance On Reading ZMM With Enjoyment and Lack of Frustration.

) My Modest Collection of "Best Books Lists".

An Other Way To Learn How ZMM Is Received Is To Study Books People Have Found Valuable. At this link you will see Robert Pirsig is Listed right along with Other Classics Authors Such as: Tolstoy, Melville, and J.R.R. Tolkien. (
See for Example: "Top 100 Novels" / "Best Spiritual Books of Century" / "Great Books" here:
http://www.usca.edu/math/~mathdept/hsg/ZMMFindSiteInfo.html#BestBooks

Excerpts from "UNEASY RIDER" BY GEORGE STEINER.

This page has reviews showing how the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance has been received by readers and professional literary reviewers.

Internet links are given where you find interesting (and valid) opinions concerning ZMM. Also this page offers links to my analysis of the Amazon ZMM Book reviews available as of Feb 2006. Additional searches for information re the eleven reviewers mentioned in Guidebook to ZMM, see below, were done 24 May 2006.

The best collection of professional ZMM Book Reviews are collected into The Guidebook to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. See Chapter Eight, p240 thru 357. This chapter has eleven literary reviews (list below) by Literary Critics and a Full Professional Publication Bibliography re academic works about ZMM from up thru ~1990.

 The Guidebook To ZMM is available in most libraries, many bookstores, or on interlibrary loan. Here is a review of Guidebook to ZMM: 

Here Is the Internet Information I Could Find Re Eleven Literary Reviews By the Eleven Literary Critics In the Above Mentioned book, The Guidebook To ZMM.

More information may be found using Google Books or Amazon "Search Inside".

1) Good Trip by Robert M Adams, New York Review of Books, 13 June 1974.
(First ~200 words free or $3.00 fee. )
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/article-preview?article_id=9465

2) "A Fine Fiction" W T Lhamon, New Republic, 29 June 1974.
Lots of hits for this author, but no web info re review.

3) "Uneasy Rider" George Steiner, The New Yorker, 15 April 1974.
See web link review excerpt below.

4) "Man and Machine" George Basalla, Science Magazine, 24 January 1975.
Lots of hits for this author, but no web info re review.

5) "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance'' Una Allis, Critical Quarterly Vol 20, Autumn 1978.
Not many hits for this author, and no web info re review, except following quotes several passages. Both links have same ZMM Review.
http://www.nal.res.in/pages/gprzen.htm
http://www.moq.org/forum/Prathap/prathap1.html

6) "Ringer To Sheehy To Pirsig: The 'Greening' of American Ideals of Success" John G Cawelti, Popular Culture Vol 2 1979.

7) "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: The Identity of the ErlKong" Thomas J Steele, Ariel Vol 17, No 4, 1979.

8) "Irony and Earnestness In Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance'', Richard H Rodino, Critique: Studies in Modern Fiction Vol 22, 1980.

9) "The Matrix of Journeys In Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance'', Richard H Rodino, Journal of Narrative Technique, Vol 11, 1981.

10) "Creativity, Rationality, and Metaphor In Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance'' Jerome Bump

11) "Visual Imagery and Internal Awareness In Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance'' Forrest B Shearon.

Excerpts from "UNEASY RIDER" BY GEORGE STEINER.
New York Review of Books, 13 June 1974.
[Here are two excerpts from the now famous Steiner Review that launched ZMM into wide critical and public acclaim. Steiner was convinced that ZMM would be come a classic and he actively used his considerable influence in the literary world to make sure ZMM got all the attention it deserved. In many websites you will see the following widely quoted Steiner passages from his now famous ZMM Review. "It lodges in the mind as few recent novels have...The book is inspired, original...the narrative tact, the perfect economy of effect defy criticism. The analogies with Moby Dick are patent. Robert Pirsig invites the prodigious comparison. What more can one say?" Below I give the larger context of these passages.]

 ....... Zen and the Art [of Motorcycle Maintenance] is awkward both to live with and to write about. It lodges in the mind as few recent novels have, deepening its grip, compelling the landscape into unexpected planes of order and menace. ....... 

The narrative thread is deceptively trite. Father and son are on a motorcycle holiday, travelling from Minneapolis toward the Dakotas, then across the mountains, turning south to Santa Rosa and the Bay. Asphalt, motels, hairpins in the knife-cold of the Rockies, fog and desert, the waters dividing, then the vineyards and the tawny flanks of the sea.

 .......  Robert DeWeese, artist-in-residence [and Bozeman MT Pirsig friend], brings out instructions for the assembly of an outdoor barbecue rotisserie which have baffled him. The discussion flows deep. It touches on the limitations of language in regard to mechanical procedure, on machine assembly as a long-lost branch of sculpture whose organic finesse is betrayed by the inert facility of commercial blueprints, on the ghost (O shades of Descartes) that inhabits the machine. Pirsig's timing and crafting at this juncture are flawless.

This is not always so. The westward journey is punctuated by lengthy meditations and lay sermons that Pirsig calls "Chautauquas." They are basic to his purpose. During these addresses to the reader, Phaedrus's insinuations are registered and diagnosed. The nature of quality, in conduct as in engineering, is debated and tested against the pragmatic shoddiness of a consumer society. Much of this discursive argument, the "inquiry into values," is finely shaped. But there are pedestrian stretches, potted summaries of Kant which betray the aggressive certitudes of the self-taught man, misattributions (it was not Coleridge but Goethe who divided rational humanity into Platonists and Aristotelians), tatters out of a Great Books seminar to which the narrator once took bitter exception. The cracker-barrel voice grinds on, sententious and flat. But the book is inspired, original enough to impel us across gray patches. And as the mountains gentle toward the sea with father and child locked in a ghostly grip-the narrative tact, the perfect economy of effect, defy criticism.
A detailed technical treatise on the tools, on the routines, on the metaphysics of a specialized skill; the legend of a great hunt after identity, after the salvation of mind and soul out of obsession, the hunter being hunted; a fiction repeatedly interrupted by, en meshed with, a lengthy meditation on the ironic and tragic singularities of American man- the analogies with Moby Dick are patent. Robert Pirsig invites the prodigious comparison. It is at many points, including, even, the almost complete absence of women, suitable. What more can one say?
http://www.mrbauld.com/steiner.html

The 1 Star & 2 Star Amazon ZMM Reviewers forcefully offer their negative ideas about reading ZMM. At link below, you will find my conclusions about what has caused so many readers extreme dislike of ZMM. I also offer my own suggestions as to how to read ZMM for the greatest understanding and insight.

This page has reviews showing how the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance has been received by readers and professional literary reviewers. Internet links are given where you find interesting (and valid) opinions concerning ZMM. Also this page offers links to my analysis of the Amazon ZMM Book reviews available as of Feb 2006.

The best collection of professional ZMM Book Reviews are collected of The Guidebook to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. See Chapter Eight, p240 thru 357. This chapter has eleven literary reviews by Literary Critics and a Full Professional Publication Bibliography re academic works about ZMM from up thru ~1990., The Guidebook To ZMM is available in most libraries, many bookstores, or on interlibrary loan. Here is a review of this Guidebook to ZMM:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE1DA153AF935A15752C1A966958260

The 1 Star & 2 Star Amazon ZMM Reviewers forcefully offer their negative ideas about reading ZMM. At link below, you will find my conclusions about what has caused so many readers extreme dislike of ZMM. Here I also offer my own suggestions as to how to read ZMM for the greatest understanding and insight.

)My Modest Collection of "Best Books Lists" Which List Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintnenace.

Robert Pirsig's ZMM is Listed As Along Other Classics Authors Such as Tolstoy, Melville, and J.R.R. Tolkien. (For Example: "Top 100 Novels" / "Best Spiritual Books of Century" / "Great Books".
http://www.usca.edu/math/~mathdept/hsg/ZMMFindSiteInfo.html#BestBooks

This page has reviews showing how the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance has been received by readers and professional literary reviewers. Internet links are given where you find interesting (and valid) opinions concerning ZMM. Also this page offers links to my analysis of all the Amazon ZMM Book reviews available as of Feb 2006.

The best collection of professional ZMM Book Reviews are collected of The Guidebook to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. See Chapter Eight, p240 thru 357. This chapter has eleven literary reviews by Literary Critics and a Full Professional Publication Bibliography re academic works about ZMM from up thru ~1990., The Guidebook To ZMM is available in most libraries, many bookstores, or on interlibrary loan. Here is a review of this Guidebook to ZMM:

By Far, the Largest Collection of Book Reviews Is At Amazon.Com. This is true for ZMM, as well as fro most other books. As of Feb 2006 there were 557 ZMM reviews. By my count 70 % of these reviews are quite positive about ZMM. However, Amazon is also where you will find the largest collection of negative ZMM reviews!! You will see that the persons who have these negative opinions of ZMM (19 %), just "don't get it"!! They do not discover what ZMM is really about.
As you may study for yourself, most of these Amazon Negative Reviewers will say they know ZMM comes with some pretty high ratings!! But despite this, ..... some how ...... the virtues ZMM escapes them! Although I can't tell what specifically these persons fail to see or why they miss the constructive parts of ZMM, It occurs to me that this puzzle deserves a deep and critical study. To this end I now have MS Word Collection of All 457 Reviews available as of Feb 2006. If you want to use this collection for study and analysis, ou may ask me for this collection (~0.5 MB). For ease of analysis, this collection of reviews has been sorted, by the number of Stars, into five separate documents. My own analysis of these reviews may be found in the next two links. If you have any insights or comments, please send email to me: HenryG__Aiken.SC.edu.

Some of these 4 Star & 5 Star Amazon ZMM Reviewers offer their ideas about the causes of frustration in reading ZMM and they offer guidance for constructive reading of ZMM. Several of these reviews and my analysis is here.

'The 1 Star & 2 Star Amazon ZMM Reviewers forcefully offer their negative ideas about reading ZMM. At link below, I offer my conclusions about what has caused so many readers extreme dislike of ZMM. Here I also offer my own suggestions as to how to read ZMM for the greatest understanding and insight.

Click here for first ten of all Amazon ZMM Reviews. On the Amazon page, click at lower left, to get the next ten reviews:
Amazon Dot Com ZMM Costumer Reviews

Web Sites That Have Good ZMM Reviews As Well AS Many Interesting ZMM & Robert Pirsig Resources.

) Psybertron Web Site has many ZMM Reviews as well as Robert Pirsig Resources. These pages are well worth considerable time and attention.!!

) Robert Pirsig Web Site, by philosopher Anthony McWatt has many Philosophy Articles And Analysis concerning ZMM, as well as many other Robert Pirsig Resources and photos. These pages are well worth considerable time and attention!!

My Collection of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Book Reviews Found On the Internet As of Feb 2006.

Most of the Web Pages listed below were found by a Google Search for target = [ "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" + Review ] I passed over Sites, where the ZMM review were short or superficial. Most reviews were positive as you will see below. Negative reviews are also included when ever they were found. Google found a total 183,000 hits for the above criterion. Time permitted examination of only about 200 of these. (My editing comments and editing additions are indicated by a [bracket]. Omitted text portions are indicated by ..... five dots).

As Mentioned Above, Here Is My Guidance On Reading ZMM With Enjoyment and Lack of Frustration.

Book Reviews and Critical Articles Testify To the Outstanding Nature of the Book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZMM).

This page shows how the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance has been received by readers and professional literary reviewers.

This page will also help you find interesting (and valid) opinions concerning ZMM. Many of the Web Pages listed on this page were found by a Google Search for target = [ "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" + Review ] I passed over Sites, where the ZMM review were short or superficial. Most reviews were positive as you will see below. Negative reviews are also included when ever they were found. Google found a total 183,000 hits for the above criterion. Time permitted examination of only about 200 of these. (My comments and editing additions are indicated by a [bracket]. Omitted text portions are indicated by ..... five dots.

The best collection of professional ZMM Book reviews are collected into chapter 8 of The Guidebook to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, p240 thru 357. This book has eleven literary reviews by Literary Critics and a Full Professional Publication Bibliography re academic works about ZMM from up thru ~1990., The Guidebook To ZMM is available in most libraries, many bookstores, or on interlibrary loan. Here is a review of this Guidebook to ZMM:

Web Sites That Have Good ZMM Reviews As Well AS Many Interesting ZMM & Robert Pirsig Resources.

Mu Collection of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Book Reviews Found On the Internet As of Feb 2006.

 Readers Subscription Book Club with full review of ZMM.

Book Reviews and Critical Articles That Testify To the Outstanding Nature of the Book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZMM).

How has the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance been received by readers and professional literary reviewers?

This page will help you find interesting (and valid) opinions concerning ZMM. Many of the Web Pages listed on this page were found by a Google Search for target = [ "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" + Review ] I passed over Sites, where the ZMM review were short or superficial. Most reviews were positive as you will see below. Negative reviews are also included when ever they were found. Google found a total 183,000 hits for the above criterion. Time permitted examination of only about 200 of these. (My comments and editing additions are indicated by a [bracket]. Omitted portions are indicated by ..... five dots.

By Far, the Largest Collection of Favorable Book Reviews For ZMM, As Well As Most Other Books, Is At Amazon.Com. By my count 70 % of these 457 reviews are quite positive about ZMM. However, Amazon is also where you will find the largest collection of negative reviews!! You will see that the persons who have these negative opinions of ZMM (19 %), just "don't get it"!! They do not discover what ZMM is really about.
As you can study for yourself, most of these Amazon Negative Reviewers will say they know ZMM comes with some pretty high ratings!! But despite this, ..... some how ...... ZMM virtues escape them! I can't tell what specifically these persons fail to see or why they miss the constructive parts of ZMM. It occurs to me that this puzzle deserves a deep and critical study. I now have MS Word Collection of All 457 Reviews. For ease of analysis, these have been sorted by the number of Stars, into separate documents. You may ask me for this collection (~0.5 MB) if you want to use it for study and analysis. Preliminary clues may be found in the Amazon ZMM 1 Star & 2 Star Reviews. More clues may be found in the next two links. If you have any insights, please send email to me.

Some of the 4 Star & 5 Star Amazon ZMM Reviewers offer their ideas about the causes of frustration in reading ZMM. Also they offer guidance for constructive reading of ZMM, which are collected here.
http://ww2.usca.edu/ResearchProjects/ProfessorGurr/index.php?n=Documents.ReadZmmBestWay

My own suggestions as to the causes of reader extreme dislike of ZMM are here.
http://ww2.usca.edu/ResearchProjects/ProfessorGurr/index.php?n=Documents.GetOverDislikeZMM

Click here for first ten of 457 Amazon ZMM Reviews. On this Amazon page click at lower left, to get the next ten reviews:

Good Web Sites That Have Many Interesting ZMM & Robert Pirsig Resources As Well As ZMM Reviews.

 !!! ) This Web Site has many ZMM Reviews and Robert Pirsig Resources and is worth your time and attention.!! 

) This Web Site has many ZMM and Robert Pirsig Resources and Forums and is worth your time and attention!

A Collection of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Book Reviews Found On the Internet As of Feb 2006.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance might be one of the most impressive books published in the 20th century: courageous and profound, it’s a working paper of humanism, Eastern and Western philosophy; a philosophical odyssey into the fundamental question of how to live, into the choices we make, and thus into ethics. The book is classified as a novel, although it doesn’t seem like a novel, aesthetically speaking. For the most part it reads like a work of dramatic nonfiction. It doesn’t matter. The humanistic energy suffusing the narrative is extraordinary, the intelligence luminous. This book should be required reading for every college freshman. The question, then: Why isn’t it?

The Readers Subscription Book Club Was Founded in 1981 by W. H. Auden, Jacques Barzun, and Lionel Trilling. Credit to Readers Subscription at:

 Readers Subscription Book Club with review of ZMM.

[Thanks to Professor Donald Blount for discovering the above review . Professor Blount believes there are only two authors, Shakespeare and Cervantes, who are worthy of designation "Classic". Since tells me that ZMM can hardly be worth any consideration, it is significant that he even paid attention to the above review!
So I especially thank Professor Blount for forwarding to me a Zerox Copy, despite his considerable reservations.]

END.

More Guidance On Reading ZMM With Enjoyment and Lack of Frustration.

Some of the 4 Star & 5 Star Amazon ZMM Reviewers offer guidance for enjoyable reading of ZMM. And they also offer their ideas about the causes of frustration in reading ZMM. These are collected and collated to here.
http://ww2.usca.edu/ResearchProjects/ProfessorGurr/index.php?n=Documents.ReadZmmBestWay

My own suggestions as to the causes of reader extreme dislike of ZMM are here.
http://ww2.usca.edu/ResearchProjects/ProfessorGurr/index.php?n=Documents.GetOverDislikeZMM

[This Web Site has many ZMM and Robert Pirsig Resources and is worth your time and attention. ]

Book Reviews and Critical Articles That Testify To the Outstanding Nature of Book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZMM).

How has the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance been received by readers and professional literary reviewers?
This page will help you find interesting (and valid) opinions concerning ZMM. Many of the Web Pages listed on this page were found by a Google Search for target = [ "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" + Review ] I passed over Sites, where the ZMM review were short or superficial. Most reviews were positive as you will see below. Negative reviews are also included when ever they were found. Google found a total 183,000 hits for the above criterion. Time permitted examination of only about 200 of these.

The best collection of professional ZMM Book reviews are collected into chapter 8 of The Guidebook to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, p240 thru 357. This book has eleven literary reviews by Literary Critics and a Full Professional Publication Bibliography re academic works about ZMM from up thru ~1990., The Guidebook To ZMM is available in most libraries, many bookstores, or on interlibrary loan. Here is a review of GZMM:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE1DA153AF935A15752C1A966958260

By Far, the Largest Collection of Book Reviews For ZMM, As Well As Most Other Books, Is At Amazon Dot Com.
You will find that about one half of these 457 reviews are quite favorable to ZMM. However, here is where you will also find the largest collection of negative reviews!! You will see that the persons who have these negative opinions of ZMM, just "don't get it"!! They do not discover what ZMM is really about.
Most of these Amazon Negative reviewers will say they know ZMM comes with some pretty high ratings!! But despite this, ..... some how ...... ZMM virtues escape them! I can't tell what these persons fail to see or why they miss the constructive parts of ZMM. It occurs to me that this puzzle deserves a deep and critical study. If you have any insights, please send email to me. Eventually I will make a MS Word Collection of All 457 Reviews. You may ask me for this collection if you want to use it for study and analysis.
Click here for first ten of 457 reviews. Click lower left for the next ten reviews:
Amazon Dot Com Costumer Reviews

) This Web Site has many ZMM and Robert Pirsig Resources and is worth your time and attention.!!

http://www.psybertron.org/pirsigpages.html

) Tripod Dot Com Offers Many Reviews and Related Resources On Their Page "Further Explorations of Robert M. Pirsig's Metaphysics of Quality".

http://members.tripod.com/~Glove_r/Bohr.html

) This Web Site has many ZMM and Robert Pirsig Resources and Forums and is worth your time and attention.!!

http://www.moq.org/forum/reviewindex.html

) Another Collection of ZMM info>

http://www.urbandharma.org/udnl3/nl060804.html

1) A Recent Book Review For Club Members, by Robert Dreesen, Editor for The Readers Subscription Book Club.

The Readers Subscription Book Club Was Founded in 1981 by W. H. Auden, Jacques Barzun, and Lionel Trilling. Credit to Readers Subscription at: Readers Subscription Book Club with review of ZMM.

[[[Thanks to Professor Donald Blount for discovering the above review . Professor Blount believes there are only two authors, Shakespeare and Cervantes, who are worthy of designation "Classic". Since tells me that ZMM can hardly be worth any consideration, it is significant that he even paid attention to the above review!
So I especially thank Professor Blount for forwarding to me a Zerox Copy, despite his considerable reservations.]]]

) A Bio of Ambassador John B. Richardson, Head of the European Commission to the United Nations, Reports How ZMM Changed His Life.

[Ambassador Richardson] has retained a keen interest in the evolution of scientific thought and claims to have been marked for life by reading, in the 60s, Robert Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". ........ Before taking up this post and presenting his credentials to Kofi Annan on 3 May 2001, Mr Richardson had previously been Minister and Deputy Head of the European Commission's Delegation in Washington since October 1996. He has devoted most of his professional career to the cause of European integration, spending 23 years at the EU headquarters in Brussels. ......
http://www.intl-institute.wisc.edu/mti/richardsonbio.htm
Also at http://www.forum.org/html/new_site/events/2004/nov04.html

) [In ZMM], Whilst Several Threads Do Get Resolved, With a Real-Life Mix of Surprise and Anti-Climax, Several Remain Wonderfully Open Ended - No-Doubt Succeeding In Provoking the Thoughts [Author] Pirsig Intended.

For anyone with an interest in the big questions of life, this is a good read. For anyone concerned with making progress in the details of the underlying philosophical debate, it is a text worthy of serious research. Both will find that those threads with uncertain resolution, are rewarded by at least one re-read.
[ This Web Site has many ZMM and Robert Pirsig Resources and is worth your time and attention. ?]
http://www.psybertron.org/zammreview.html

) The Dharma of Science: 25 Years After ZMM, Gangan Prathap Explains What the ZMM Book Means To Him.

In many ways, ZMM significantly influenced the way I saw my own work (research in the area of computational structural mechanics) and my perceptions of the larger issues of science and technology and its dialectical tension within and their relationship to the values of society.
http://www.cmmacs.ernet.in/nal/pages/gprzen.htm
Also at http://www.moq.org/forum/Prathap/prathap1.html

) Pirsig wants to dissolve the paradoxes of technological man, make us return to nature through a care for machine. The motorbike is an emblem and practical example.

And the correspondence between the landscapes traveled and the subjects discussed -- high places for spiritual stuff and deserts for the ugliness of modern life -- is so elegant as to be entirely unbearable. The ending, where the narrator fights off a bout of returning insanity, finally communicates with his son and sets the boy off on the road to disentangled manhood, is worthy of Old Hollywood, and must have quite a bit to do with the book's success. To be able to pose problems intelligently, and to solve them with schmaltz, is really quite a recipe. ...... My main objection to Pirsig's book, I think is that it is too blithe and sentimental in its evasion of the consequences of this argument. Not that the moralists shouldn't go on moralizing, or that teachers shouldn't go on teaching. There are all kinds of useful by-products of those activities. But they could do it, perhaps, with a stronger sense of the chief potential flaw in their enterprise, which is its distressing superfluity.
http://www.moq.org/forum/MichaelWood/wood.html

) "Yes, I've finally read the book with one of the best titles in philosophy, after several years of having it queued, and after introducing my parents to it some time before I managed to read it myself." Russ Allbery.

This [ZMM] has the readability of popular psychology but not the shallowness, and if you've been putting it off because you were worried it was going to be too mystical, too difficult, or too proselytizing, worry no longer. Pirsig kept me interested, made me think, didn't talk down to me, and didn't annoy me, and higher praise for philosophy is rare.
http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/books/0-553-27747-2.html

) This Is a Sort Of Late Review of the Best Book I´ve Ever Read by Allen, a Social Educator, Photographer and Day-Trader.

I first read it [ZMM] when I was about 20, and it made a huge impact on my life. I was at a very adaptive age - and searching for direction spiritually and otherwise. It was the first word in the title "Zen" that initially attracted me. Little did I know how this book would be an important companion for me throughout my life.
http://my.opera.com/ricewood/blog/show.dml/128126

) This Is One of Those Books That Needs To Sink In Before One Can Really Think About It.

It’s a blessing in the sense that when you finish it, you want to go back and read it all over again to really appreciate it for what it is. And it’s a curse because when you get bored before the good bits in the last few chapters, you’ll probably drop the book and declare it a waste of time. It made me feel that maybe the author really didn’t have much to say and so he saved the best bit for the last in the hopes of making the reader think he had more than he really did.
ZMM Review by Elver at Cellsoft

) English Teacher Reports How ZMM Saved Her From Destruction

Pirsig's book was a literary miracle at a time when I was the lowest point in my adult life. ..... I've only read it once. And it changed my life. I lost my voice on the second day and lost 18 pounds in 14 days. God knows how far back my hairline receded in that time. I was on the verge of quitting every day. In November of 1996, my friend and brother, "lent" me Pirsig's tome. I read bits of this masterwork every day before I left my apartment for work. The concepts within it sustained me and gave me strength when I thought my tanks were dry.
http://www.writing.com/main/product_reviews/pr_id/108242

) "Top Ten" Friends Journal.

Well, this review started on a somewhat negative note, but I'll finish it on a positive one. ZMM is a good book. It's an unusual book, which is also important. It's probably not like anything I've read before, and I'm always happy about this, being exposed to vastly different ideas and styles. Some of it is too philosophic for me, so maybe I'll have to read it again some time.
http://use.perl.org/~spur/journal/19281

) ZMM Has Many Weak Points, A Negative Review by Girish Venkataramani, Ph D. Candidate, Electrical & Computer Engineering Department, Carnegie Mellon University.

In the end, the main weakness of this book is the method of analysis chosen by Pirsig. Ask any scientist and they'll tell you that the most beautiful theorems and laws are the simplest ones. In this regard, Phaedrus's convoluted, heavy analysis fails miserably. Nuances are lost in the process, and rhetoric takes the place of the very scientific truth pursued by the book.
http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~girishv/fiction/books/reviews/zen_motorbike.html

) Forward Motion's Book Forum Has Interesting Blog Review.

I wonder what some of you think of it. I just finished, I've been chewing through it my free evenings for a month or two now, and I can't get it out of my head. Like all good philosophy, I put it down and felt mentally exhausted, I had been thinking so hard. It is a stimulating and unique journey, akin to my experience of reading Descartes for the first time. That 'aha' factor, thinking about things in a different way. My whole mind tuned into the pace of his thoughts. Magical.
F M Writers Dot Com review ZMM

) A Work of Art .... Solaris Recommends ....

The novel begins with the author and his son touring the countryside on their motorcycle with some friends . And slowly the author begins to talk about things - things which seem important to him. Why are we in such a desperate hurry all the time ? Why are people running away from technology , feeling nostalgic about the good old days ? Most importantly , why have we stopped caring about our work , about what we do - like the way a careless mechanic manhandles a motorcycle ? What is Quality, he wondered ? These are the questions that bothered a man called Phaedrus who was a very intelligent person extremely well versed with reason and logic.
F M Writers Dot Com review ZMM

) My perspective of Robert M. Pirsig's Lila: Doug Renselle

Robert M. Pirsig's "Lila" is one of the finest and most challenging books in print today. For those of you who have read his, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance," (ZMM) and enjoyed the philosophical and mystical challenges there, "Lila" offers even more.
http://www.quantonics.com/LilaReview.html

)Motorcycle Online Has Many Interesting ZMM Reviews Mostly From The "Biker" Perspective.

But is the time and effort [to read ZMM] well-spent? Absolutely. ...... In a society which tricks a person into deriving self-worth from monetary income and material possessions, this book helps the reader rediscover what truly is important. In the process, the reader learns to take pride in the individual lives they live and the decisions they make.
http://www.motorcycle.com/mo/mcbeware/zen.html

) Publishers Page Has Reading Guide and Extensive "Topics for Discussion" Questions.

http://www.harpercollins.com/global_scripts/product_catalog/book_xml.asp?isbn=0060839872&tc=rg
Short Review at:
http://www.harpercollins.com/global_scripts/product_catalog/book_xml.asp?isbn=0688002307

) Bookseller Has Worthy Collection of Reviews.

Barns and Nobel review

) Book Crossing, A Global Community of Book Lovers Has Several Short Blogs.

Book Crossings Dot Com Book Club Review ZMM

) Wayward Puppy Web Site Not So Thrilled By ZMM.

While I did have to roll my eyes every few pages I am still glad I read this work because of its reputation – sometimes finding out a book isn’t that great is just as valuable as finding out that a book is good.
http://www.waywardpuppy.com/archives/2005/02/zen_and_the_art.html

) Bookseller Has Worthy Summary.

http://www.biblio.com/books/isbnnu/59533295.html

) The Ishmael Network Reading List Has Collection of Available Pirsig Books With Description of Each.

http://www.ishmael.com/interaction/network/readings/index.cfm?initial=Z

) “This book will change the way you think and feel about your life”

That’s what the back cover said. It’s pretty much right. Both times I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance it had significant effects [on me].
http://www.timewastersguide.com/view.php?id=1079

) Howard W. French's Glimpse of the World Web Site Has ZMM Review.

This book is a delight, especially the quiet ways in which it explores relationships between family members and friends, and in the way Pirsig talks about our relationship with technology, as well. ...... There’s not a whole lot of Zen, as the intervening years have taught me. Rather, you’ll find a fair amount of philosophical rumination, relieved by the author’s gift for landscape and other descriptive writing.
http://www.howardwfrench.com/archives/2005/04/27/zen_and_the_art_of_motorcycle_maintenance/

• ******** END ********

The Readers Subscription Book Club Was Founded in 1981 by W.H. Auden, Jacques Barzun, and Lionel Trilling.

The Readers Subscription Book Club WasFounded in 1981 by W.H. Auden, Jacques Barzun, and Lionel Trilling.

Book reviews and Articles That Testify To the Outstanding Nature of Book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintnance.

1) A Recent Book Review by Robert Dreesen, Editor for The Readers Subscription Book Club.

Founded in 1981 by W.H. Auden, Jacques Barzun, and Lionel Trilling.

Book Review For Club Members.

One of the more intelligent works of criticism on poetry, on literature, written in the last fifty years might be Colin Falck’s Myth, Truth & Literature, in which the superfluousness of literary theory is argued, convincingly. The last footnote, or final acknowledgment in that book, is to Robert M. Pirsig’s “once-acclaimed but now (it seems) almost forgotten fictional masterpiece” Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: “Much of what I have argued in [Myth, Truth & Literature] is only an intellectual elaboration of Pirsig’s fine insights,” wrote Falck.

I had read Colin Falck’s work twice yet hadn’t bothered to read Robert M. Pirsig’s book; I think because I had thought that it must lack substance and rigor, like some cult books. Works of excellence don’t give themselves away easily, and thus generally don’t become so-called "cult classics." And so I was caught unawares by Falck’s words and asked Pirsig’s publisher for a copy of Zen....

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance might be one of the most impressive books published in the 20th century: courageous and profound, it’s a working paper of humanism, Eastern and Western philosophy; a philosophical odyssey into the fundamental question of how to live, into the choices we make, and thus into ethics. The book is classified as a novel, although it doesn’t seem like a novel, aesthetically speaking. For the most part it reads like a work of dramatic nonfiction. It doesn’t matter. The humanistic energy suffusing the narrative is extraordinary, the intelligence luminous. This book should be required reading for every college freshman. The question, then: Why isn’t it?
1999 by William Morrow. 432 pages.
Credit to Readers Subscription at: http://www.readerssubscription.com/doc/full_site_enrollment/detail/fse_product_detail.jhtml?repositoryId=471190B443&repositoryId=471190B443

Thanks to Professor Donald Blount for discovering this review and forwarding to me. Professor Blount believes there are only two authors, Shakespeare and Cervantes, who are worthy of designation "Classic". Since tells me that ZMM can hardly be worth any consideration, it is significant that he even paid attention to the above review!
So I especially thank Professor Blount for presenting me with a Zerox Copy, despite his considerable reservations.

2) This Bio of Ambassador John B. Richardson, Head of the European Commission to the United Nations, Reports How ZMM Changed His Life.

Before taking up this post and presenting his credentials to Kofi Annan on 3 May 2001, Mr Richardson had previously been Minister and Deputy Head of the European Commission's Delegation in Washington since October 1996. He has devoted most of his professional career to the cause of European integration, spending 23 years at the EU headquarters in Brussels.
He began his career with the European Commission by working on economic aspects of environmental policy, the beginning of his interest in issues of sustainable development.
Subsequent posts related to international energy policy, relations with the Gulf States, and external aspects of the EU's Single Market. From 1983-1989 he worked on international trade in services, for which he was EU negotiator in the Uruguay Round and spent many long weeks and nights in Geneva, his first multilateral experience.
In 1989 Mr. Richardson became Head of Division for relations with the US then in 1993 for relations with Japan. On two dozen trips to Japan he came to deeply appreciate its art and culture.
As a Member of the Board of the Salzburg Seminar, which runs a program designed to bring together young leaders from Europe, the U.S., and around the world, Mr. Richardson has a long-time interest in understanding and bridging cultural differences. He is also a Member of the Advisory Board of the European Institute.
From 1969 to 1973, Mr. Richardson was employed by Unilever Ltd. as an economist in both London and Hamburg. He studied at Downing College, Cambridge, and University College, London, from 1963-1969, where he received degrees in Chemistry and Economics. He has retained a keen interest in the evolution of scientific thought and claims to have been marked for life by reading, in the 60s, Robert Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance".
John Richardson is married to the German radio journalist, Irmtraud ("Irmy") Richardson and has three grown-up daughters. In addition to his native English, he speaks French and German and is at home in Brussels and Provence.

3) This Second Bio of Ambassador John B. Richardson, Also Reports How ZMM Changed His Life.

Head of the Delegation of the European Commission to the United Nations, before taking up this post and presenting his credentials to Kofi Annan on 3 May 2001, had previously been Minister and Deputy Head of the European Commission's Delegation in Washington since October 1996. He has devoted most of his professional career to the cause of European integration, spending 23 years at the EU headquarters in Brussels. Mr. Richardson began his career with the European Commission by working on economic aspects of environmental policy, the beginning of his interest in issues of sustainable development. Subsequent posts related to international energy policy, relations with the Gulf States, and external aspects of the EU's Single Market. From 1983-1989 he worked on international trade in services, for which he was EU negotiator in the Uruguay Round and spent many long weeks and nights in Geneva, his first multilateral experience. In 1989 Mr. Richardson became Head of Division for relations with the US then in 1993 for relations with Japan. On two dozen trips to Japan he came to deeply appreciate its art and culture. As a Member of the Board of the Salzburg Seminar, which runs a program designed to bring together young leaders from Europe, the U.S., and around the world, Mr. Richardson has a long-time interest in understanding and bridging cultural differences. He is also a Member of the Advisory Board of the European Institute. From 1969 to 1973, Mr. Richardson was employed by Unilever Ltd. as an economist in both London and Hamburg. He studied at Downing College, Cambridge, and University College, London, from 1963-1969, where he received degrees in Chemistry and Economics. He has retained a keen interest in the evolution of scientific thought and claims to have been marked for life by reading, in the 60s, Robert Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance".

Credit to: http://www.forum.org/html/new_site/events/2004/nov04.html