Swallow by Mary Cappello
A beguiling and deeply rewarding exploration of Philadelphia's Mutter Museum Foreign Body Collection, drawers filled with items that have been swallowed. It is also a quirky portrait of Dr Chevalier Jackson, the pioneering laryngologist who extracted these items non-surgically. Animating the space between interest and terror, curiosity and dread, Capello explores the physiology of the human swallow, the poignant and psychology that compels people to ingest non-nutritive items. A history of racism, violence, class and poverty and forced ingestion.
A warm and thoroughly researched portrait”
The Washington Post
Cappello brings a psychoanalytic richness to her understanding of ingestion and dentition.”
The Guardian
[Cappello] packs her story with surprising imagery and extravagant lyricism, taking a highly literary approach on the subject.”
Salon
One odd, and oddly haunting, book.”
Macleans
"Swallow is a surprising and original work. It is biography on the slant, a meditation that transcends boundaries and genres, written with scholarship, humor, and panache. I urge you to take this journey."
Ricky Jay
"[Cappello's] writing style is wistful, wacky, and wise. . . . Swallow is a strange and alluring work of musings and medical history. . . . Occupying a curious position between Ripley’s Believe It or Not and riveting biography, this book is something special."
Tony Miksanek, MD, JAMA
"A wonderful and bizarre book: gorge yourself on it, and gulp."
Simon Winchester, author of Atlantic
"Cappello's fine writing creates a book that goes down very easy."
Paul Di Filippo, The Barnes & Noble Review
The Washington Post
Cappello brings a psychoanalytic richness to her understanding of ingestion and dentition.”
The Guardian
[Cappello] packs her story with surprising imagery and extravagant lyricism, taking a highly literary approach on the subject.”
Salon
One odd, and oddly haunting, book.”
Macleans
"Swallow is a surprising and original work. It is biography on the slant, a meditation that transcends boundaries and genres, written with scholarship, humor, and panache. I urge you to take this journey."
Ricky Jay
"[Cappello's] writing style is wistful, wacky, and wise. . . . Swallow is a strange and alluring work of musings and medical history. . . . Occupying a curious position between Ripley’s Believe It or Not and riveting biography, this book is something special."
Tony Miksanek, MD, JAMA
"A wonderful and bizarre book: gorge yourself on it, and gulp."
Simon Winchester, author of Atlantic
"Cappello's fine writing creates a book that goes down very easy."
Paul Di Filippo, The Barnes & Noble Review
Mary Cappello's three previous works of literary nonfiction are Awkward, a Los Angeles Times bestseller; Called Back, a critical memoir on cancer that won a ForeWord Book of the Year Award and an Independent Publisher Book Award; and the memoir Night Bloom. A recipient of the Bechtel Prize for Educating the Imagination from Teachers and Writers Collaborative and the Lange-Taylor Prize from Duke University's Center for Documentary Studies, she is a former Fulbright lecturer at the Gorky Literary Institute (Moscow) and currently a professor of English and creative writing at the University of Rhode Island. She lives in Providence.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781595587770 |
| ISBN 10 | 1595587772 |
| Title | Swallow |
| Author | Mary Cappello |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | The New Press |
| Year published | 2012-06-14 |
| Number of pages | 304 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |