Eve Rifkah

Scar Tissue Eve Rifkah

In Scar Tissue, historical poet Eve Rifkah turns from recounting marginalized voices of the past to delving into her personal heritage by telling the story of the tortured life of her aunt. Cora spent the first seven years of her life in foster care while her mother was in a state hospital for the mentally ill. Foster care turned out to be the happiest time of her life, even though she was badly scarred when scalded with hot water. The cruelty of the burn nurses gave rise to a dream of becoming a nurse to treat others with respect and kindness. When Cora's father remarried, her childhood as a real-life Cinderella began. Forced to do chores her stepsisters escaped, she was also closely observed for signs of her birth-mother's possible insanity. Her mantra became, "I'm not crazy, not crazy." Cora's realization of her dream to become a nurse and her work for a year in the new nation of Israel were followed by an unhappy marriage and loss of two of five children. When her youngest child became an Orthodox Jew, she returned to the religion of her childhood and learned anew how to manage a kosher lifestyle. Cora's strength lay in her ability to deal with difficult times and still to know joy in the simplest of things. Cora's niece tells her story in a bleak yet simple language creating empathy for the main character. We root for Cora to succeed against all odds.