Swallow [Paperback]

Tonya Plank (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 11, 2009

WINNER OF GOLD MEDAL, 2010 Living Now Book Awards, Women's Fiction
WINNER OF GOLD MEDAL, 2010 Independent Publisher Book Awards, Best Regional Fiction
FINALIST, 2010 ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Awards, General Fiction
FINALIST, 2010 National Indie Excellence Awards, Regional Fiction

Sophie Hegel is a shy New York lawyer who hails from small-town Florence Arizona, known not for the Renaissance but for housing a large prison. She's just graduated from Yale Law School and landed her first job when, one evening, during dinner with her fiancé, she feels a fist-like ball form at the base of her throat. A form of the psychological condition Globus Sensate, this "fist-ball" wreaks havoc on her life, causing her difficulty eating, speaking, and eventually even breathing. With a cast of characters that includes a pornographer father, a sister with a knack for getting knocked up by denizens of the town pen, a painter of male nudes, an eccentric Sing Sing-residing client, a tough-talking fashion maven and a bevy of privileged Manhattan lawyers and judges, Swallow is a dark comedy about the distance that can separate fathers and daughters, and about a young woman's struggle to survive in a world of pedigreed professionals for which she has no preparation.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Plank has a knack for combining philosophical opinions, hard-luck family stories, discount shopping triumphs, and gently slapstick humor into a book that makes readers laugh, think, and swallow hard in sympathy." --ForeWord Reviews

"I swallowed it up, no pun intended... The novel is very chatty and engaging... A great beach read." --Gotham Gal

"...As engaging as any book I have read. Although it does seem to be a little long at first, the character development is so appealing that once you start reading you find yourself eagerly anticipating what will come next..." --Examiner.com

"This is not just regional, women's fiction - it transcends any genre... Ms. Plank's first novel is a brilliant show of even greater things to come. She is an author to watch and follow." --The Review Broads

Swallow, which I've just started reading, hooks you from the opening pages with its breathless urgency and captures what it's like to live in NY now, with money worries and ambition and myriad obligations breathing down your neck, and none of it written in cutesy chick-lit'ry. So give it a try. --Vanity Fair Online, James Wolcott, January 15, 2010

About the Author

Tonya Plank worked as a criminal appeals attorney in New York City. A ballroom dancer and a longtime balletomane, she writes the popular dance blog, "Swan Lake Samba Girl." SWALLOW is her first novel. Praise for "Swan Lake Samba Girl" "Tonya Plank [is] one of New York's most precious assets." James Wolcott, VANITY FAIR blog. "Tonya Plank is one of the blogosphere's freshest, liveliest, least predictable, and most pleasing voices. Long may she samba!" Terry Teachout, author of ALL IN THE DANCES and POPS: A LIFE OF LOUIS ARMSTRONG.

Product Details

• Paperback: 402 pages
• Publisher: Dark Swan Press (December 11, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0615280994
• ISBN-13: 978-0615280998
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (57 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,039,367 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Tonya Plank grew up in Phoenix, Arizona. She holds a B.A. in English from the University of Arizona, an M.A. in History from Brown University, and a J.D. from Rutgers Law School - Newark.

She worked for many years as a NYC appellate-level criminal defense attorney for indigents. Also a competitive ballroom dancer, she writes the dance blog, Swan Lake Samba Girl, which has been lauded by James Wolcott of Vanity Fair and Terry Teachout of the Wall Street Journal and has been cited in those publications as well as the New York Times Arts Beat blog, the Washington Post, and CNN.com. Her first novel, Swallow, won a gold medal for best regional fiction in the 2010 Independent Publisher Book Awards, the gold medal for women's fiction in the 2010 Living Now Book Awards, and was a finalist in the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Awards and the National Indie Excellence Awards. Her law review articles have been cited in numerous books and publications.

She currently lives in New York, where she is working on her second novel, a legal / urban drama.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars terrific character study January 4, 2010

By Harriet Klausner #1 HALL OF FAME

Format:Paperback

Sophie Hegel left Florence to attend Yale Law School although her shyness makes public speaking a combat sport. At school during a debate she met decade older Stephen. In early 2001 with the Towers still part of the landscape, she graduates and passes the New York State bar Exam. Sophie starts work at New York City's Public defender Office and moves into Stephen's Manhattan apartment.

Engaged to marry, they are having dinner together when she suddenly cannot eat or speak and barely can breath. Her throat feels stuffed by a ball the size of her fiancé's fist. She remembers as a seven years old having the first time the fist blocked her throat when she, her sister and mom left their dad in California to move to the Arizona penitentiary city of Florence. Finally deciding to learn what her condition is, Sophie finds out she suffers from a psychosomatic illness Globus Sensate; a condition that makes it difficult to represent her Sing Sing clients in a court of affluence, but 9/11 will soon teach her what terror truly is as she walks down sixteen flights.

This is a terrific character study of a mid twenties woman struggling with a psychological disorder that attacks her physically at importune moments in a world and in her mind already out of control with unfairness. Whether it is Arizona, New Haven, or New York, Sophie struggles to survive feeling like an outsider; enabling her to empathize with her poverty stricken clients. Fans will root for this wonderful heroine who refuses to allow her delicate condition and her sense of not belonging from preventing her from doing her best for her indigent clients who face a system that scorns them as losers for being poor.

Harriet Klausner

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A New York state of mind January 3, 2010

By M. Northrop

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Not only was this book a blast to read, but it also offered me an unlikely education in subjects as far ranging as criminal appeals, dress sizes, and therapy. It's a very metropolitan mix, and this is very much a New York book. Who knew such peril could lurk within the sugary haze of Serendipity? And because the main character originally hails from a small town in Arizona, the perspective can be by turns inside and outside. Highly recommended for native New Yorkers, fellow transplants, and anyone curious about what it's like to carve out a life in NYC.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A very engaging, darkly humorous read June 3, 2010

By Elizabeth A. White

Format:Paperback

"Like so many times since arriving on the East Coast, I realized that, for all the oohs and aahs I received back home for my accomplishments, they amounted to absolutely nada here". - Sophie Hegel

It's hard to believe that someone who graduated from Yale Law School and landed a prestigious fellowship with the New York City Public Defender's Office could think her accomplishments amount to "nada," but when we meet Sophie Hegel at the beginning of author Tonya Plank's debut novel, Swallow, Sophie is experiencing serious self-confidence issues.

Originally from a small town in Arizona, she's not found the transition to the fast paced world of NYC easy. It doesn't help that her boyfriend, an attorney at a prestigious law firm, works insane hours and the only socializing they do seems to bring her into contact with a crowd of upscale attorneys from generations deep ivy league pedigrees... which only makes her feel more insecure.

Things seem to be looking up when her boyfriend proposes to her at dinner one evening, except that she suddenly gets the sensation that she has a lump in her throat and finds it nearly impossible to swallow. Not only does the sensation not go away, it gets progressively worse and her inability to eat anything substantial causes her to lose such an alarming amount of weight that her friends and family think she has an eating disorder. Though she doesn't, she does realize that she needs help, and thus begins her search for the cause of her condition.

Despite that rather dire sounding set-up, Swallow is actually a very engaging, darkly humorous read. Sophie's attempts to find the answer to her problem in the medical world, first with a physician then a psychologist, are fertile ground for misadventure. She's also surrounded by an extremely colorful cast of supporting characters: the fashion maven who takes Sophie under her wing; her gay, law school dropout turned artist friend; her father, a semi-successful maker of pornographic films; a surprisingly insightful client, currently incarcerated at Sing Sing; even the enigmatic doorman of the building Sophie lives in makes for a memorable presence in his few scenes.

The supporting cast, however, is not merely there as pretty window dressing. Each serves as a unique piece of the puzzle that is Sophie's life. Her challenge is in learning to understand how her interactions with each are either helping or hurting her growth as a person and potentially contributing to her condition, which is eventually diagnosed as a psychosomatic illness caused by stress.

Plank has created a wonderfully three-dimensional and quite believable character in Sophie, and Swallow presents an almost painfully realistic portrait of a young woman's journey from emotional repression and self-doubt to emotional freedom and self-assurance.