Curious About Robert Pirsig’s Classic Book, But Not Sure Whether It Is Right for You?

Book Reviews and Critical Articles Testify To The Outstanding Nature of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZMM). Here You Can Discover What ZMM Is "All About" and Why You Should Read This Book!

This webpage contains Internet links to book reviews that show how the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance has been received by literary reviewers—both professionals and ordinary readers.

Here are some things to be aware of, as you read this page:

1) For each Blue 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.

4) My editing comments and additions are indicated by a [bracket]. Omitted text portions are indicated by … (ellipses) [HSG].

Excerpts from "UNEASY RIDER" BY GEORGE STEINER.

New York Review of Books, 13 June 1974.
'''Below Are A Few Excerpts From The Now-Famous Steiner Review That Launched ZMM Into Wide Critical And Public Acclaim. Steiner Was Convinced That ZMM Would Become A Classic, And He Actively Used His Considerable Influence In The Literary World To Make Sure ZMM Got All The Attention It Deserved.
…On Many Websites You Will See One Or Another Of The Following Widely Quoted Steiner Passages From George Steiner’s 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?"

…"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.”

…"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?”
Click Here For The Full Text Of => "UNEASY RIDER" BY GEORGE STEINER. From New York Review of Books, 13 June 1974.

The Best Collection Of Published Articles About ZMM, By Professionals Literary Critics Of Which I Am Aware, Is Contained In The Guidebook to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Chapter Eight [pages 240 through 357] displays eleven literary reviews [with each review in its complete form], which I list below.
…AND, for each of These “Eleven Review Articles”, The Guidebook, also shows the original article’s Full Professional Publication Bibliography, regarding academic works about ZMM, up through the year 1990.
… The Guidebook to ZMM FULL TEXT IS AVAILABLE With Archive.org. below => SIDE NOTE1:
…Also this is possibly available in libraries or bookstores or through interlibrary loan.
'You May Learn More about 'The Guidebook to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, At the Next 2 Blue Links.

******
Here Is the Information I Could Find on the Internet Concerning the Eleven Literary Reviews by the Eleven Literary Critics, which are listed in the Above-Mentioned The Guidebook To ZMM.

1) “Good Trip,” by Robert M Adams, New York Review of Books, 13 June 1974.
You Can Read The First ~200 Words Free Or $4.00 Web Price, which is likely NO LONGER AVAILABLE.

2) “A Fine Fiction,” by W T Lhamon, New Republic, 29 June 1974. BUT NO information is currently found specifically regarding the review.
2)Continued: The 4 Blue Links Next Down, HAS IN ITS LIST OF REFERENCEs => “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 Steiner Review excerpts at the TOP of this webpage.

4) “Man and Machine,” by George Basalla, Science Magazine, 24 January 1975.
Lots of hits for this author, and several articles quote from it. And since there are not any suitable free full text web versions for this Review Article, please use below => SIDE NOTE1:.

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.
Click Here For =: :”Retrospective Reviews of 2 Books => “ZMM” Book and “Guidebook To ZMM”.

6) “Ringer To Sheehy To Pirsig: The 'Greening' of American Ideals of Success,” by John G Cawelti, Popular Culture Vol. 2, 1979.
Click Here For About 1 Page Of This ZMM Review. AFTER this page comes up => You can read one page, and then click for a “Free Trial”, to see all 15 pages.

7) “"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance": The Identity of the ErlKong,” by Thomas J Steele, Ariel Vol. 17, No 4, 1979.
Click Here And Thomas J Steele’s 4 MB Full Article As A Download Will AUTOMATICALLY START A FILE SAVE-AS IN YOUR COMPUTER’S File System.

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.
…Since there are not any suitable free full text web versions for this Review Article, please use below => SIDE NOTE1:.

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.
…Since there are not any suitable free full text web versions for this Review Article, please use below => SIDE NOTE1:.
10) “Creativity, Rationality, and Metaphor in Robert Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,''” by Jerome Bump.
…Since there are not any suitable free full text web versions for this Review Article, please use below => SIDE NOTE1:.

11) “Visual Imagery and Internal Awareness in Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, "” by Forrest B Shearon.
…Since there are not any suitable free full text web versions for this Review Article, please use below => SIDE NOTE1:.
******

SIDE NOTE1: Full Text Content For => The Guidebook to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance., Seems Seems To Be Available With Archive.org. AFTER above link comes up => Lower Right you can click full screen, and then several times ClickOn the > Icon to advance to finally see content pages. You will see at top “Borrow for 1 hour. Renewable every hour, pending availability.”
SIDE NOTE2: Although Google Books Usually Will NOT Show Any Content For => The Guidebook to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance., You Can See Some 10 % Of Content, in Scattered places. Click Here.

By Far, the Largest Collection of Customer Book Reviews Is at Amazon.Com. This is true for ZMM, as well as for most other books. As of March 2006 there were 457 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 see for yourself, most of these Negative Amazon Reviewers will say they know ZMM comes with some pretty high ratings!! But despite this—somehow—the virtues of ZMM escape them! And they seem genuinely puzzled by this; nevertheless, they proceed to 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 an MS Word Collection of All 457 Reviews available as of March 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 by clicking on the next two links, directly below. If you wish to receive these MS Word documents, or have any insights or comments, please send an e-mail to me: HenryG__USCA.edu

Some of these 4-Star and 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 an analysis of their contents by HSG, Site Master] is here:
http://venturearete.org/ResearchProjects/ProfessorGurr/index.php?n=Documents.ReadZmmBestWay

The 1-Star and 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:
http://venturearete.org/ResearchProjects/ProfessorGurr/index.php?n=Documents.GetOverDislikeZMM

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 Show All ZMM Book Costumer Reviews

Martin Svoboda on Discovering & Translating ZMM

Martin Svoboda on his discovery of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and how he wound up translating it into Czech.
”Meeting of Me and Zen”

Websites That Have Good ZMM Reviews as Well as Many Interesting ZMM and Robert Pirsig Resources.

1) Psybertron Website has many ZMM Reviews as well as Robert Pirsig Resources. These pages are well worth considerable time and attention!
http://www.psybertron.org/pirsigpages.html

2) Robert Pirsig Website, 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!
Click Here For Anthony Mcwatt's WebSite Of Jan 22 2018 Saved By Archive.org.

3) Tripod Dot Com Offers Many, 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

4) 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

5) Another Collection of ZMM info:
http://www.urbandharma.org/udnl3/nl060804.html

Mr. Pirsig's Reply To My Idea To Research & Photograph the ZMM Route. Dated March 28, 2002. This Included A CD With A Huge Collection Of Full Text Articles & Reviews Concerning ZMM Book, Published In Newspapers, Magazines. And Professional Journals.
…Serious ZMM Researchers may contact me if they want access to information on this CD.
Click Here To See Copy Of Mr. Pirsig]s Letter.

If You Are Looking For ZMM Reviews & Articles (Beyond Those Given On This Page, Which Is The Page You Are Currently Reading) =>
… Please Be Aware That Practically Every Page (And Gallery Photo), Has MANY ADDITIONAL LINKS To Information Concerning Robert Pirsig Or His ZMM Book:
…FIRST: Practically every page of this ZMMQ Website (accessed by the at left Main Menu), leads to pages that have numerous links and valuable information. This is true also true of the links that happen to be in the ZMMQ Gallery Photos.
SECOND: The Three ZMMQ Site Pages that have by far the greatest number of Pirsig Related Links are =>
A) There are many Links on my ZMMQ News items (& News Archives) page, specifically related to Robert Pirsig, his book ZMM, and related items.
B) There are many Annotated Links placed on my ZMMQ Homepage.
C) This Page of Alternatives & Extensions To Book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZMM) has Suggested Books with Links.

My Selected-For-Better-Than-Most, Collection of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Book Reviews Found on the Internet as of March 2006.

…Most of the Webpages 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 reviews were short or superficial. Most reviews were positive, as you will see below. Negative reviews are also included whenever they were found. Google found a total 183,000 hits for the above criterion. Time permitted examination of only about 200 of these.

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

…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?

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

…Thanks to Professor Donald Blount for discovering the above review. Despite my interest in ZMM, Professor Blount tells me ZMM is destined for 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.

2) 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 twenty-three years at the EU headquarters in Brussels.
Click Here For Dec 21, 2004 Archive.org That Seems The Only Version That Mentions ZMM Book.

3) Ian Glendinning Essentially Reviews ZMM Book By Saying =>

…“Whilst Several Threads [In ZMM], 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 Robert] 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.”
lick Here To Read => Ian Glendinning’s Full Reaction To His Reading Of ZMM Book. ALSO WebSite Has Many ZMM And Robert Pirsig Resources, And Is Well Worth Your Time And Attention, To “Click Around”!

4) The Dharma of Science: 25 Years After ZMM, Gangan Prathap Explains What the ZMM Book Means To Him. This Is Essentially A ZMM Book Review.

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.
Click Here For The Entire WebPage From Archive.com

5) Pirsig Revisited: A “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” Review by Michael Wood. Published in New Society, 17th February 1997.

…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.
Click Here For The Entire WebPage From Archive.com

6) "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 sometime before I managed to read it myself." Russ Allbery.

…This [ZMM Book] 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.
https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/books/0-553-27747-2.html

7) A Very Nice Homage to ZMM Tucked Into a Review of Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" taught me about philosophy.
https://web.archive.org/web/20140301233948/http://my.opera.com/ricewood/blog/2007/01/08/an-homage-to-the-book-jonathan-livingst

8) 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.
NOTE: The WebPage … elver.cellosoft.com/2005/08/01/book-review-zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance-an-inquiry-into-values-by-robert-m-pirsig/ … is NO LONGER AVAILABLE and is also “BLOCKED” From Archive.org.

9) 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. [Don’t miss this English Teacher's complete (and true) story of "How ZMM Saved Her From Destruction"! HSG]
https://www.writing.com/main/product_reviews/pr_id/108242

10) 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.amazon.com/Zen-Motorcycle-Maintenance-Robert-Pirsig/product-reviews/0613582802?pageNumber=19

11) AFTER This Page Comes Up, You See 15 “Reader Reactions” To Their Reading Of The Book "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance," (ZMM) Although these are not at all interesting, they are mentioned here for what they are worth to you.

For one of the better Reviews, Please Scroll Down To => A Work of Art: which continues with =>
…A cult book , it became immensely popular when it was first released in the 70s. 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. [To see this complete discussion Click Blue Link Below. ] ….
Click Here For 15 “Reader Reactions” To ZMM.

12) “My Perspective Of Robert M. Pirsig's Lila:” A Complete Review by 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

17) Biblio.con Is A Bookseller Which You Should Consider For ALL Of Our Book Purchases.

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

18) The Ishmael Network Reading List Has 4 Reader Reviews Of Robert Pirsig’s ZMM Books.

Click Here For 4 Reader Reviews Of ZMM Book.

20) 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.
Click Here For Howard Frencl Full ReviewsOf ZMM Book.

21) My Own Thoughts, Laid Out on the Webpage "Why Read ZMM,” [by Henry Gurr, ZMMQ Site Master] Are Here:

http://venturearete.org/ResearchProjects/ProfessorGurr/Documents/WhyReadZMM

As Mentioned Above, the Following Two Links Will Take You to Webpages That Contain Guidance on Reading ZMM With Enjoyment and a Lack of Frustration. Some Of This Guidance Is Mine (Henry Gurr), Some From Other Readers.

Some of the 4-Star and 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://venturearete.org/ResearchProjects/ProfessorGurr/index.php?n=Documents.ReadZmmBestWay

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

My Modest Collection of "Best Books Lists".

Another 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:
Click Here For => Henry Gurr’s Original Proposal To “Identify Buildings and Route of Travel in Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance”. And AFTER this page comes up, scroll down to (AND Continue Reading after) => “A Collection of "BEST BOOKS" Lists”.
NOTE: You will find that few of the Blue Links are broken. Please use Bing or Google to find what you want.

"The Philosophical Traditions Of Herman Melville In Robert Pirsig’s Novel ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’ ".

…The novels “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” and “Moby Dick” reveal many similarities at the plot and compositional levels, however, the philosophical optimism of Pirsig’s metaphysical theory determines a significant difference in the ideological orientation of the ideas of the two works.
Click Here For => Scientific Works On Linguistics And Literary Criticism. The Author Of This Scientific Work Is Nikulina Alla Konstantinovna.
…AFTER this link comes up, you may need to ask for “Translate from Russian to English. Then scroll down to the full article, which should be in English.

Edited by Andrew Geyer 16 Oct 2010; minor revisions by David M. 23 Nov 2012.
…RevHSG16-19Seot2023.
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