Sophie Hegel is a young lawyer living in New York City. After graduating from Yale Law School and securing her first real job, Sophie is proposed to by her decade older boyfriend, Stephen. While he is proposing, Sophie feels something in her throat, described as a fist-ball, lodging her breathing. From that moment, the fist-ball keeps appearing during important times in Sophie’s life, such as representing clients and meeting other lawyers. Sophie tries therapy to understand what is happening to her, as the fist-ball is causing her to be unable to eat or drink. When the therapist talks about her childhood, Sophie dredges up painful memories about her father, who films pornography movies., and the relationship she has with her mother and sister. The therapist diagnoses Sophie with a psychosomatic illness called Globus Sensate, and Sophie must deal with her issues in order to overcome this disease.
Swallow, the debut by Tonya Plank, is an interesting story. It took me awhile to grasp the concept that there was an imaginary fist-ball constantly in the main characters throat. I really didn’t understand where the story was going. Once I dove deeper in, I could see how her childhood left damaging psychological distress on her adult life, and started rooting for the character to overcome and succeed. Swallow is marked as dark comedy, but I don’t see anything comedic about the story. I thought it was extremely edgy and dark, and I enjoyed Plank’s writing. I think readers should give this novel a chance, even though the synopsis may see a little far-out, the story is meaningful.
Rating: 3/5
