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Reviewed by Alice DiNizo for Readers' Favorite
Author Francine Billingslea has lived through the horrors of rape and breast cancer, and she has lived through the death of loved ones and personal divorce. Now as a survivor, she writes of her experiences and how she survived in "Through it All: And Out On The Other Side". This memoir is highly readable with well-organized chapters that offer sections at the end of each such as "Comments and Facts" and appropriate quotations from the Bible. Although Francine Billingslea is religious, what she writes is not in the least offensive and will speak to the non-religious reader as well. Francine grew up in Belleville, New Jersey, near Newark, and lived a life of happiness with a supportive family until one day, as a teenager, she went into Newark to deliver homework to a friend and was raped and almost thrown to her death from a rooftop. Recovering from that trauma, Francine married for love but the wrong person and gave birth to a daughter, Keanna. She worked long, long hours, sometimes six days a week, on an assembly line to provide for herself and her daughter and was forced to move out of state to keep working. Settled finally in Georgia with her mother and daughter, Francine is faced with the fight of her life as she is diagnosed with breast cancer. Will this valiant lady give up? Obviously not. So read "Through it All" to find author Billingslea's happy ending.
Books like this one reminds me of what I enjoy in memoirs. This book is a well-written, well-edited and formatted one by Francine Billingslea that should be on every reader's list. Why? The path that Francine Billingslea has walked in life has been a rough one, to say the least, and she writes convincingly of her mental and physical survival, showing the reader her true character as strong, sympathetic and having a deep faith in God. Memoirs give the readers insights into how to live their own lives, survive their own traumas and "Through it All" does just that without being preachy yet offering hope. This delightful book throws life-saver messages out to the reader to overcome whatever life brings.
