Poet Serotte relives a childhood cataclysm in this culture-rich affecting memoir. In l954, she contracted polio, mere months before the Salk vaccine, a coincidence that struck her Sephardic Jewish household as especially cruel. In this lively subculture, a minority among even New York Jews, Serotte earned high praise for her beauty, grace and belly dancing.
The family matriarch, Nona Behora, was revered for her ability to read fortunes in Turkish coffee grounds. Before her death, she divined misfortune for the author, her granddaughter. The family desperately sprouted medieval benedictions to deflect the evil eye.
A prolonged agonizing hospital stay forced the author to work her own miracles.
The drama of Serotte's struggle to walk again creates a wonderful narrative.
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