Brittle Joints

Sweeney (The Scooter Twins) has a disease most haven’t heard of—only a few dozen cases of Bruck syndrome have ever been chronicled medically. There’s no cure, and although her brittle, broken bones and motion-limiting joint contractures can only get worse (the only effective pain relief is medical marijuana), medical professionals observe her like an exotic plant instead of helping her. Additionally, outsiders tend to have no understanding or sympathy for an invisible but agonizing condition that requires a wheelchair only sometimes. Sweeney movingly recounts multiple episodes in her life through subdued, smudgy color realism, toggling among flashbacks about her adoption from Moldova, painful medical procedures while a child in New Jersey, movement problems and difficulties balancing treatments during art school in Philadelphia, and subsequent worsening of her condition. Throughout, she dwells on the beauty of the natural world, the warmth of friends and loved ones, and the coldness of strangers—especially clinicians who regard her more as an interesting rarity than a patient to help.