A cultural anthropologist and poet, the author based the book on her own childhood experiences, so it’s unsurprising that Ruthie’s story rings true. Ruthie also prays and writes letters to God, Shiva, and Kahlo, asking them for guidance, healing, and forgiveness. Bedridden and lonely, Ruthie knows she’s “lucky” to be alive, but she’s also “broken.” She begins collecting stories from her Jewban grandparents her fellow young immigrant friends, Belgian Danielle and Indian Ramu her “flower power” tutor, Joy and her vibrant Mexican neighbor, Chicho, an artist who teaches her about Frida Kahlo. The doctor opts to immobilize both legs in a body cast that covers Ruthie from chest to toes. But after Papi’s Oldsmobile is involved in a fatal multicar collision, Ruthie’s leg is severely broken. She also struggles with intense fear when it is time to begin using crutches and descend the six flights of stairs in her apartment.In the 1960s, Ruthie Mizrahi, a young Jewish Cuban immigrant to New York City, spends nearly a year observing her family and friends from her bed.īefore the accident, Ruthie’s chief goals are to graduate out of the “dumb class” for remedial students, to convince her parents to buy her go-go boots, and to play hopscotch with other kids in her Queens apartment building.

Ruthie learns the details of the accident and struggles with hatred for the boy who caused it, eventually realizing she can forgive him. As Ruthie heals, moving from a body cast to just one leg, but still bedridden, her world opens up again when her father gives her a typewriter and she can now record people's stories.

Chicho brightens Ruthie's small world, literally and figuratively, moving her bed so that she can see out the window and bringing her paints and introducing her to Frida Kahlo, telling her she is the guardian saint of wounded artists. When Ramu's family experiences a tragedy that sends them back to India, Chicho, an immigrant from Mexico, moves into their apartment and befriends Ruthie.

She also begins collecting stories, starting with her Jewban grandparents, learning of her grandmother's escape from Poland during World War II, then her escape from Castro's Communism. Ruth begins writing letters, first to Ramu, then God, then, after he sneaks a visit and gives her a pendant that is special to him, letters to Shiva as well.

Lucky Broken Girl by Ruth Behar