Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

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HarperCollins, Aug 2, 2005 - Psychology - 464 pages

A narration of a summer motorcycle trip undertaken by a father and his son, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance becomes a personal and philosophical odyssey into fundamental questions on how to live. The narrator's relationship with his son leads to a powerful self-reckoning; the craft of motorcycle maintenance leads to an austerely beautiful process for reconciling science, religion, and humanism. Resonant with the confusions of existence, this classic is a touching and transcendent book of life.

This new edition contains an interview with Pirsig and letters and documents detailing how this extraordinary book came to be.

This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

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About the author (2005)

Robert M. Pirsig was born in 1928 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He studied chemistry and philosophy (B.A., 1950) and journalism (M.A., 1958) at the University of Minnesota, pursued graduate work in philosophy at the University of Chicago, and attended Benares Hindu University in India, where he studied Oriental philosophy. He is also the author of a sequel to this book, Lila.

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