Swallow: Foreign Bodies, Their Ingestion, Inspiration, and the Curious Doctor Who Extracted Them
Mary Cappello
(Author)
Description
In this fascinating and lyrical book, the seemingly disparate but equally marvelous worlds of the circus and the medical amphitheater meet in characters ranging from the sword swallowers and women who lunched on hardware to the sensitive, bullied boy who grew up to be the father of endoscopy. The Mütter Museum's Chevalier Jackson Foreign Body Collection, a cabinet filled with thousands of items that have been swallowed or inhaled, then extracted nonsurgically by a pioneering laryngologist using rigid instruments of his own design, sets the stage for award-winning author Mary Cappello's moving investigative portrait of Dr. Chevalier Jackson (1865-1958), his cosmology of objects, and the lives he saved. Its own uncanny, deeply rewarding assemblage, Swallow brings together the complex physiology of the human swallow and the menace of a button box; a willed ingestion of non-nutritive things that is little understood and a social history of hunger; the humanitarian mission that bred the Federal Caustic Poison Act of 1927 and a crusade to make the world "foreign body conscious."Product Details
Price
$18.95
$17.62
Publisher
New Press
Publish Date
May 01, 2012
Pages
304
Dimensions
5.3 X 8.2 X 0.8 inches | 0.75 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9781595587770
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About the Author
Mary Cappello is the author of Awkward (a Los Angeles Times bestseller), Called Back, and Night Bloom. A recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, the Bechtel Prize for Educating the Imagination, and the Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize, she teaches at the University of Rhode Island and lives in Providence.
Reviews
[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"
""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"
"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"
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
"
"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
