Review: Solidly Written Inspirational Memoir of a Journey Through Poverty to Success
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 27, 2013
Everything Will Be All Right, a memoir written by Doug Wallace and based on his own life experiences of growing up in acute poverty makes its reader pause to reflect on a topic that is often forgotten or quickly glossed over when discussing the issues of economics in America.  We believe that while there may be poverty here,  there positively can't be children starving, rooting through garbage trying to find their next meal in America, the land of plenty...the land of excess.  With all the state and federal assistance, child care services, the foster system, etc.  we unpretentiously presume this couldn't and wouldn't be tolerated.  So when we do come across a story such as Wallace's detailing the pain of extreme poverty as a child right here in America and how he was determined to break the cycle for himself, we tend to dismiss it as an exception to the rule or that those parents couldn't have been sensible parents if they couldn't or wouldn't be responsible enough to feed, clothe, support and educate their children properly like everyone else does in America.Too often when we think of poverty, it is while watching television, an extended commercial flicks on begging you to send money to a charity while presenting the small faces with the too large, sad eyes and bloated bellies of dark-skinned children in some far off third world country. We may feel saddened; we may feel angry; we may even be moved enough to get out our checkbooks and write a check there and then in order to feel that we are doing something good. However, those commercials are never about children here in our backyard and this book, Everything Will Be All Right, makes the reader ask WHY? Why are we sending tens of thousands of dollars for medicine, food, clean water and education opportunities to countries with names we can barely pronounce to help their children while at the same time refusing to even acknowledge the same problem we have here with our own children? There is a saying...in order to help others, you must first help yourself.  Are we so caught up as a nation with other people's misery that we overlook the misery happening right under our very noses? Apparently we as a nation are so obsessed, so enthralled with the romanticized view of ourselves being the world's champion that we pitilessly step over our own citizens sorely needing that very attention on our own shores.I am sure the writing of this book was not only a healing manifestation on how far the author has come in his life, from pauper to prince/ independent wealth, but in writing his story he has also succeeded in giving a service to his readers by creating more awareness about this issue. This story was told from the heart and each page made me feel as if I was living Wallace's experiences as he described them.  Through his imagery he made me experience a semblance of what he was feeling at the time which caused me to run the gamut of emotions through each successive chapter.  This is truly a story of pulling yourself up from your boot straps as they say and creating your own opportunities. I can definitely appreciate the title of this aptly named book as I have lived by two mantras that have gotten me through very tough spots of life, "This too I shall overcome" and "Where there's a will; there's always a way".  Wallace bares his soul to the reader on his journey of self-discovery, demoralizing mistakes, and uplifting achievements to be able to finally overcome his tragic generational cycle with a lot of faith and tenacity. I would highly recommend this book. It is a solidly written inspirational memoir.