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9781846881541

Lila

By Robert M. Pirsig

ISBN: 9781846881541

439 pages

RRP: Original price was: £8.99.Current price is: £7.19.

WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY ROBERT M. PIRSIG

Phædrus – a character familiar to readers of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance – is sailing down the Hudson River when he meets Lila Blewitt, an unapologetically sexual, psychologically unstable woman whom a mutual friend warns him against.

But Phædrus is drawn to her physically, and interested in her intellectually, finding her “a culture of one” in whom he discerns an unexpected “Quality”. Sailing with him to Manhattan, where her mental state deteriorates further, Lila prompts Phædrus to explore conflicts of values, such as those between Native Americans and Europeans, or between the insane and the normal.

 ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was like a first child. Maybe that will always be the best-loved one. But this second child is the bright one. I think a lot of people will argue with some of the ideas in Lila. There may be controversy. But if people are still reading these two books a hundred years from now, I predict Lila will be the one they consider the more important’ — Robert M. Pirsig

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REVIEWS

  • Pirsig peppers the narrative with intriguing insights and provocative propositions.

    The Guardian

  • The compendious and digressive qualities … keep you bumping through the pages … The voice of the narrator carries some of the folksy weight and salty wisdom of a Mark Twain.

    Sunday Times

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  • There’s still this terrible sense of madness and reality behind it which makes you realize it was written because it had to be written … The journey’s very much worthwile.

    Time Out

  • This is a book I’ll come back to and read again … another one to be grateful for.

    Scotsman

  • Written in everyday language, with searing disrespect for academia, this meandering holiday was a life-changer for me, both as a novel and a thesis.

    D.B.C Pierre

  • Lila is unmistakably Pirsigian in style and content … this author is a Great Thinker.

    Oxford Times

  • This is a book I'll come back to and read again … another one to be grateful for.

    The Scotsman

Robert M. Pirsig

Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Robert M. Pirsig has achieved world fame and classic status for his iconic book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values. This was followed, seventeen years later, by Lila: An Inquiry into Morals, an updated version of which was published by Alma in 2006.

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