Hot Cripple

Life was going along just fine for ex-model and aspiring actress Gorman until the day she was hit by a car while crossing a New York City street in 2004. At the time working as an uninsured cocktail waitress, she found herself navigating the murky waters of the American health-care system before the reforms of 2010. While her life was turned upside down and inside out, she learned firsthand what many Americans had already experienced in the search for affordable health care. With the help of her mother, who flew in whenever needed—whether for surgery or another round of doctor visits—Gorman has lived to tell the tale. Her brutally honest descriptions of her experiences are sharp and detailed, written in a down-to-earth style. This book is based on Gorman's one-woman show of the same name, which she performed at the New York Fringe Festival in 2008 (four years after her close encounter with a car's windshield) and for which she won the festival's Outstanding Actor Award.