Zen and Now

September 15, 2008
Forty years ago, Robert M. Pirsig, his son, Chris, and two friends rode their motorcycles from Minneapolis to California on a journey made famous by Pirsigs best-selling Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974). Pirsig pilgrims and Zen riders have been following the Pirsig trail every since, and now journalist Richardson takes his shot, laptop lashed to Suzuki. His travelogue is dull, mesmerizing, and provocative, just like a long road trip. Theres plenty of motorcycle maintenance, an accounting of what has remained the same on the route and what has changed, and the intriguing discovery of the journey Pirsigs book has taken, reaching the unlikeliest of readers. Richardson meets folks who appear in Pirsigs book and their descendants and presents an incisive portrait of the reclusive guru, a difficult man of uncommon intelligence who has weathered mental illness and his sons murder. Richardson is companionable, but he is no deep thinker. His chronicle lacks historical context and metaphysical understanding, yet, like a well-maintained motorcycle, it carries you forward into shadow and sunlight.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)