Swallow

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.

Discusses what it means to ingest things humans weren't meant to eat, and how the line between human bodies and foreign bodies can sometimes blur.

List of IllustrationsAuthor's NoteAcknowledgmentsI. Who Was That Man?Alone on Floor with Pile of ButtonsRemembering Forward: The Idea of a LegacyFbdy #C804, Case #3268, X-rays #48451C and 48460C: The Case of Andrew C.A Peculiar Chap"The Life of Chevalier Jackson": Early Prototypes of RescueII. How Does Someone Swallow That?Between Carelessness and Desire: Getting Objects DownChevalier Jackson's Traumatic "Phases"A Catastrophe of Childhood: Gastric LavageChevalier Jackson's Tears: The Case of the Boy Who CriedFbdy (multiple) #1173: Gavage: The Case of Joseph B.Fbdy #2440: A Perfect Attendance Pin, or "Threats to Doctor Jackson's Life""Strange Things Were on the Run from Mary's Deepest Depths": Hardware. Swords. Scopes.III. What Are These Things?Fbdy #565: The Case of Margaret Derryberry: Objects Lost and Found and Lost, AgainObject LessonsInstrumentality and Instruments as ThingsModernist Portals and Secular Tabernacles: Chevalier Jackson Meets JosephCornellIV. EpilogueMystery Bones and the Un-recovered Boy