ZOR: Philosophy, Spirituality and Science

The author of ZOR, J.B., sent me this book. I was sceptical: self published books are the ones I usually end up not reviewing. However, one day I did start reading it and I didn’t stop. With spiritual fiction that’s probably the best compliment one can give. In terms of plot the story is a twist on a familiar theme: Wall Street guru turns his life around. However, it’s done in a way that’s surprising. And this Wall Street guru was never unethical. He was  a drunk though, his marriage had become a rut and he’d definitely lost the spark he had growing up in the 60s. In his fifties, his kids all grown up, he meets ZOR. Zor is a Haitian dwarf who roams the streets of New York in winter, going back to Haiti for the summer (or vice versa, it’s not clear). He’s the ultimate mystery man, the mystical guru, the Mahatma if you will, that we would all love to fantasize about: enigmatic, spelling his message out to Jonathan Brewster in one chance meeting after another. In real life I doubt any of us would listen. But this is of course a story. A believable story somehow, after reading the book I feel I know John Brewster. No coincident that the author’s name is abbreviated to J.B. I assume. Whether ZOR is the personification of books J.B. started reading in his fifties is a biographical question I’m not going to ask the author at this junction. Let’s keep the mystery alive… ZOR does a lot of explaining of the spiritual aspect of life in the book. In general it’s a good read, not too soppy. The only time I skipped over the spiritual science explanations was when he went into string theory and time travel. He lost me there. ZOR has a sensitive take on the whole ‘positive thinking’, ‘law of attraction’ and ‘the secret’ theme. For instance when Brewster tries out the ZOR’s advice to ask his wife about something positive that happened during the day, she spills out the story of having had a phone call from an old college friend. They’d talked for hours, which was the happy bit. The sad bit was that this friend was dying from cancer and calling up old friends as a sort of goodbye. J.B. and ZOR aren’t in the ‘let’s deny our problems’ business. The point here isn’t that positivity should overrule the real negatives in our lives, but that by facing our problems with a positive attitude, the whole dynamic changes. For a self published book, this looks like it’s a hit already: 43 5 star customer reviews on Amazon. From a mix of top reviewers, ordinary amazon users and a few people with only this review on their name. Looks legit.

  • BUY: Zor: Philosophy, Spirituality, and Science, available in paperback and kindle format
  • Author: J.B.
  • Paperback: 268 pages
  • Publisher: CreateSpace (November 9, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1452895406
  • ISBN-13: 978-1452895406
  • Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches