Alida Brill & Dr. Michael D. Lockshin Dancing At the River's Edge
Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 6:30 PM
Members' Room; $10 in advance/$15 at the door
Alida Brill has suffered from a rare and chronic autoimmune illness since childhood. For more than twenty-five years, one spot of brightness in her situation has been her medical relationship with her doctor, Michael D. Lockshin. Their dual memoir traces the growth of their unique friendship over a span of decades. By exploring the bond between caregiver and sufferer, this sensitive account evokes not only the constant day to day frustrations and emotional toll suffered by the chronically ill, but also an understanding of the mental struggles and conflicts that a conscientious doctor must face in deciding how best to treat a patient without compromising personal freedoms. StoryCorps Executive Director Dave Isay calls it "a poetic, powerful and groundbreaking work that illuminates the resilience and strength of the human spirit."
Alida Brill is a sociologist, an essayist, and the author of several nonfiction books, including Dimensions of Tolerance,
Nobody's Business, and
A Rising Public Voice.
Michael D. Lockshin, M.D. is one of America's preeminent experts in the long-term care of chronically ill patients. He is the director of the Barbara Volcker Center for Women and Rheumatic Disease at the Hospital for Special Surgery and a professor of medicine and obstetrics-gynecology at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York. He is the author of Guarded Prognosis and The Hospital for Special Surgery Rheumatoid Arthritis Handbook.
