ARA Review by swoverby of Burn Zones

[swoverby]

[Following is an OnlineBookClub.org ARA Review of the book, Burn Zones.]

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4 out of 5 stars

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REVIEW OF BURN ZONES: PLAYING LIFE'S BAD HANDS BY JORGE NEWBURY

Reviewer -- Susan Swanson, Author of Rebirth In Acadi

Burn Zones: Playing Life's Bad Hands by Jorge Newbury isn't just an inspirational self-improvement autobiography. It’s also a story about family, bicycling, punk rock (a very unfamiliar world to this octogenarian reader), and Newbury's work ethic. AND -- a big plus -- the memoir includes pictures. Beyond that, it is about Mr. Newbury's seeming need for new challenges in his life and, ultimately, his goal of managing distressed real estate while keeping unfortunate renters and owners in their homes. His story reveals itself over the span of many years and includes not only childhood business ventures, but work organizing hedge funding to buy pools of defaulted mortgages.

The author, citing both personal ambition and zeal for community improvement, negotiates a wild roller coaster of a life that reaches its high point when he achieves real estate mogul status and plunges to a devastating low after a freak ice storm ruins a property to which he has devoted his life. When that roller coaster ride threatens disaster is when Newbury employs what he terms "burn zone," the strategy of pushing himself to physical and mental limits. This strategy, he claims, separates winners from losers.

Using spare and simple language, Newbury has written an easy-to-read memoir that, though not a work of memorable prose, draws the reader in. On the upside, I really liked Jorge's enormous ambition, innate intelligence, and daring boldness - and even his long-standing aversion to strip clubs -- and I found myself rooting for him to the end. Rooting for him even though I realized his real estate acquisitions were over-leveraged bets funded by the same banks he protested against later in life when he organized Occupy Cincinnati, a protest based on the success of Occupy Wall Street. On the downside, the bicycle portion of the book was boring, characters' quotes were poorly executed, his anti-police sentiment got old, and the attempt at humor through his exasperation at his father's use of "Jorgie" was overdone. (As a reader, each time I saw "Jorgie" coming I cringed.)

Newbury is an empathetic, decent-seeming guy whose philosophy is that people generally treat you the way you treat them. Further, if you work hard and push through hard times, you will in the end be gratified. His story is about how he has overcome adversity by maintaining a positive attitude supplemented by that "burn zone" push that got him through the roughest times. The volume is really not a self-help book; I found little actual advice. Nor is it complicated. Nor emotional. What it is is a thought-provoking book with a message. And that message is: in order to turn a problem into a solution one must work diligently and concentrate on doing well by doing good.

As Newbury said, quoting Nelson Mandela, “The greatest glory in living lies not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail.” This book is for those who share that philosophy.

I give Burn Zones: Playing Life's Bad Hands 4 out of 5 stars. I didn't give the book a five because it could have used some professional editing.

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[Marsha JJ]

I read Burn Zones as well and really enjoyed it. I was inspired by the author's grit and determination.