Adrian's Reviews > Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

** spoiler alert ** A not so consistent read with lots of ups and downs.

The story behind the story : a father that grieves over the death of his son tries to understand what his son was : An idea , a pattern , was it only in his imagination and where did he go after death.
He then takes his motor bike and goes in a circuit of the USA reminiscing the time spent with his son.

Throughout the book we are told what quality is and how it affects the modern man . We also get a glimpse of Phaedrus the alter ego of the author , the insane version that is interested in philosophy , dialectic and rhetoric.

The book is lots of fun when describing how one man searching for qualiity and the truth gets in university and basicallly demolishes his professors.

The book draws parallels between the art of motorcycle maintainance and quality. Basically that every thing that you set your mind upon can become art and be the vessel of quality if you do it systematically, you preeplan it and give attentiion to all.the details.More so when you do something of quality you influence the people around you , you "infect" them , and it spreads for the greater good.

There are times when its mind blowing , like the whole approach to definiing what makes something real. Is it our senses that define that something , or do we have an apriori image of that thing that changes in time.

There are also times when i find it boring or really too hard to follow.The first 55% of the book is great , you caan follow along with ease. Then you hit a rut up until 82% , when the book starts climbing and becomes exceptional . (I am referrinng to.the university chapters).

The ending wraps it all up quite nicely and its the place where your accumulated questions are answered quite consistently.

If this book was a shorter somewhere in the 300-350 pages it wouldve been a solid 5/5.