Social Work

Social Work is the story about a man named Marc who has just tried to kill himself. He is put into a hospital where he is given group therapy and one-on-one counseling with a social worker named Lauren. Marc is upset that he tried to kill himself and wants a better life for himself. He is diagnosed with schizophrenia. This story follows Marc as he dates women, embarrasses himself, and tries to keep picking himself up failure after failure.

The characters were really well developed and I felt as if they were probably modeled after some real-life people the author himself knew. Marc is very vulnerable and often shows this side of himself. He is able to open up to Lauren as the book goes on. I also liked Lauren because she seems like a good person who is caught up in this strange, close-but-not-close relationship with one of her patients. As Lauren’s personal relationship with her boyfriend Ahmad develops she finds herself still thinking about Marc and wondering what it would have been like to date him. There were also a few other side characters in the book that Marc connected with, and they too were easy to understand as far as their purpose in Marc’s life. I liked the fact that the book was short and easy to read. The author didn’t leave ends untied, but also didn’t drone on and on. The flow of the book was done right.

The parts of the book I didn’t like were not many, but were enough to be a bit irritating while reading. The dialogue in the book is very unrealistic. I feel if the author had someone read the book’s dialogue out loud it would be really funny. People just don’t speak like that in real life. For example, in one interaction, Lauren introduces Marc to a man named George. She basically says, “OK. George, I’d like to introduce you to Marc. He likes to bowl himself…” Then when George responds he says to Marc, “Pleased to meet you. Well, you seem like a great guy, Marc.”. Who says “you seem like a great guy” after someone just introduces you to the person? Very unrealistic. Also, when Marc meets a girl named Holly he says to her, “Hi Holly. It’s great to be talking to you. I think you’re really nice looking.” That dialog is so awkward. Even for Marc! There are several other examples of this odd kind of interaction, and it’s either purposefully very strange or the dialog is very rushed. I also felt that although I liked the characters, Lauren was not a very good social worker because she wasn’t very professional in the way she conversed with Marc. She spoke to him like he was her little brother telling him not to buy junk food and there were times when it seemed like she was belittling him.

Overall, I enjoyed the storyline. I would just love to see the dialog be rewritten into something more relatable.