Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig (1984, Paperback, Reissue)

A FESTIVUS MAXIMUS QUICK TAKE REVIEW (*NO SPOILERS*).

What you need to know about this book:

1. You should consider it NON-FICTION. It reads best if you accept it as being autobiographical.

2. This book tells two parallel stories, and alternates back-and-forth between them. One of these stories is easy to follow; the other, however, is substantially more difficult ... but it is worth the effort.

3. The first, most basic story is a relatively easy-to-read and simple to understand travelogue: a man is taking a motorcycle trip across the country with his age-twelvish son, hoping to "re-connect" with him. In this story, the author describes the beauty and simplicity of rural 1960's America, along with the interpersonal realities of spending many hours together sharing a single motorcycle on a long trip.

To pass time on the trip, the author narrates to the reader a second, more complicated, deeply philosophical story which the author refers to as a Chautauqua. In his Chautauqua, the author recounts the events in his life which created the necessity for him to re-connect with his son: how he became obsessed with a philosophical construct called "Quality" to the point where he could think of nothing else, culminating in his wife involuntarily committing him in a psychiatric facility.

4. The two stories -- the travelogue and the Chautauqua -- eventually collide, as the author finds himself drawn to the western University where his psychiatric descent began. It is a compelling, intellectual journey, alternating between joyful, insightful, humorous and profoundly sad.

5. The Epilogue to the 10th anniversary edition contains both a tragic postscript and a comforting outlook for the future.

6. The book doesn't really discuss Zen philosophy, nor does it discuss much motorcycle maintenance.

7. I've read the book, cover to cover, every year since 1979 ... and each time I get something new out of it. That, I think, is the mark of a truly extraordinary book.

Enjoy.