Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is the account of two journeys mixed together. The book begins with the second journey, the journey that takes place while Robert Pirsig is traveling with his son. This second journey is told in the present tense, and it is the story of Robert Pirsig rejoining with a personality electroshocked out of him many years ago. The initial, and first journey, is the previous course of events leading to his insanity, and eventually, to the removal of his first personality. Robert Pirsig often flips between these two stories, writing one chapter in the present tense about the motorcycle trip, and the next one about his former self teaching at the University of Montana.

Robert Pirsig also flips back and forth between two levels of consciousness. He opens with a factual, narrated story of his trip through Minnesota. However, he often steps up to a higher philosophical level, a "high country of the mind," as he says. At one point he may be talking about chain adjuster links on a motorcycle, and at another he may be writing about the true meaning of a ghost, and how his former personality is a ghost that was not buried well. As the reader proceeds deeper into the book, the philosophical level of the book heightens, moving into discussions of Kant, romanticism and classicism, and finally, at what is truly the climax of the book and the impetus for Pirsig's insanity, an in depth analysis of Quality. The careful, gradual escalation into Pirsig's high country makes sure that the reader enjoys a plot line also, making sure that the he or she doesn't get any 'altitude sickness' from prolonged exposure to metaphysical philosophy, but at the same time, the reader can make a profound philosophical journey out of the book.

Over both of these two layers of context there is the pervading theme of what Robert Pirsig calls a Chautauqua, a thought provoking personal account meant to deepen the consciousness of the reader, and perhaps, the author. To some extent there is a tinge of danger, of crisis, in his memoir. There is a point on the motorcycle trip when he is ready to turn himself in to a mental hospital again, and other times when he comes into real danger while riding on the motorcycle. However, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is, for the most part, a quiet, thoughtful book. It is meant to be read carefully, to seep into the reader rather than impress into him or her. Perhaps one great example of this patience, other than the complete absence of any profanity or shouting in the book, is a phrase written at the beginning of the book. Robert Pirsig is driving his motorcycle with his son sitting behind him, and he taps his son on the shoulder to tell him something. They speak for a few seconds, and then, Robert Pirsig writes "nothing more is said." The phrase is like much of the rest of the book. It is neither a positive nor a negative observation, but something that just is. Pirsig writes with a sense of natural place and observation, a sense that puts everything he says in context. These themes make Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance a fascinating read.

In his afterword Robert Pirsig wrote about an Ancient Greek perspective of time. Unlike current conceptions of the future being in front of us and the past being behind us, the Greeks felt the unpredictable future came from behind a person, with the past was laid out in front of him or her. Perhaps Robert Pirsig was right when he said that, like this future sneaking up from behind, no one could have predicted the singular success of his book, or that, in years to come, it would become a "culture-bearer," as he says. Yet at any rate, what Robert Pirsig wrote in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was an intense account of two critical moments in his life. His story united his personality, and at the same time founded a new philosophy for the modern era. If there is one book to be regarded as an excellent inquiry into living in the modern age, this is certainly the one.

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