In 1968, Robert Pirsig and his eleven-year-old son, Chris, made the
cross-country motorcycle trip that would become the inspiration for
Pirsig's book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, a powerful
blend of personal narrative and philosophical investigation that has
inspired generations. Among the millions of readers to fall under the
book's spell was Mark Richardson, who as a young man struggled to
understand Pirsig's provocative and elusive ideas. Rereading the book
decades later, Richardson, now a journalist and father of two, was moved
by its portrayal of Pirsig's complex relationship with Chris and struck
by the timelessness of its lessons. So he tuned up his old Suzuki dirt
bike and became a "Pirsig pilgrim," one of the legions of fans who
retrace the Pirsigs' route from Minneapolis to San Francisco. In
following this itinerary over the lonely byways of the American West,
Richardson revisits the people and places from Zen and the Art of
Motorcycle Maintenance, pondering the meaning of Pirsig's philosophy and
the answers it may offer to the questions in his own life. Richardson's
dogged reporting also gives new insight into the reclusive writer's
life, exploring Pirsig's struggle with mental illness, his unwanted
celebrity, and the tragic, brutal murder of Chris in 1979. Published to
coincide with the fortieth anniversary of Pirsig's original trip, Zen
and Now is a stirring meditation on a classic work and a passionate
inquiry into the lessons it continues to teach us in the complex and
bewildering world we inhabit today.
