New York: Bantam, (1991) dj. Hardcover first edition - The second novel by the author of "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", published nearly 20 years later. It "continues where his former work left off - in an exploration of the Metaphysics of Quality set against a journey by sailboat to the Atlantic Ocean. Phaedrus, peripatetic author of a successful book about motorcycles, is once again on the road in this philosophical odyssey - or rather on the Hudson River, as he makes his way toward the Atlantic and, eventually, Florida. . . But isolation is the last thing a sailboat captain experiences on the water, Phaedrus discovers, and it's just as well, because his encounters with Lila (an aging former prostitute), Richard (her childhood friend), and assorted others along his journey inspire even more exciting concepts for his philosophical book." (Kirkus) Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. 409 pp. ISBN: 0-553077376.