Thomas Duffy takes a thought-provoking look at mental health and the emotional relationships surrounding it in Social Work, a human drama that plays out between a patient and therapist amidst feelings of love and loss, success and failure.

A failed suicide attempt lands Marc Ziller, 28, in the behavioral health unit at a New York hospital. His treatment includes group and individual sessions with clinical social worker Lauren Davidson. Of the therapist/patient relationship, Lauren says: “I don’t believe it’s supposed to be everlasting. A good therapist points their patients in the right direction. Job done.” Yet the lines appear blurred with her constant thoughts and concerns about Marc, even after she’s left her position.

Throughout, Lauren wrestles with her desires for marriage and a family. While Lauren’s future husband, Ahmad, may offer stability, the couple’s conversations hint at a less than heartfelt commitment.

As the story evolves, Lauren and Marc each attempt to navigate paths toward self-fulfillment.

The narrative is driven by characters and conversation, whether through Marc and Lauren’s banter, Marc’s conversations at his job, or in his revolving attempts to secure a steady relationship via the likes of singles groups or online dating. Duffy weaves a touch of humor into this eclectic and engaging mix of character interaction; for example, with a singles group excursion to the Museum of Sex, therapeutic tic-tac-toe games that turn into Hangman matches, and Marc’s joking request of one therapist for her best 20-minute relationship advice.

Readers may find the ending disappointing, however. As the final chapters move ahead a few years, the nature of the central characters’ re-connect seems oddly contrived in light of the underlying emotions hinted at throughout the primary course of the narrative. Better proofreading is also needed to correct missing words and inverted phrasing.

Although there might be some predictability here in the patient/therapist relationship, for those who favor conversational-driven writing and ventures into the human plight, Social Work provides an interesting exploration.

Clarion Rating: 3 out of 5

Social Work is a thoughtful novel about self-understanding and the need to be understood by others.

Thomas Duffy’s novel Social Work concerns the personal and professional relationship between a hospital therapist and her most complex patient.

After a suicide attempt, Marc is introduced to Lauren, the social worker tasked with helping him get his life back on track. While he’s at first reluctant to open up, Marc soon shares his desires for a grander life with Lauren. He also expresses interest in her as a friend. Both aspirations prove difficult for Lauren to handle; she reflects that Marc is her most interesting patient in some time.

Once Marc is released from the hospital, he has to forge his path without constant guidance. Meanwhile, Lauren’s time listening to what Marc wanted from his life prompts her to look inward and ask herself what’s missing from her own life. Both characters aspire to grow and make use of what they learned from one another.

Personal healing and growth take precedent in this story about overcoming mental illness, though its underlying theme of expectations is as important. Part of what drives Marc to attempt suicide is his depression, which is attributed to personal dissatisfaction and a feeling that, despite his negative choices, he deserves more than what he has; this feeling continues to haunt him throughout his rehabilitation.

Lauren, too, is unsatisfied with her situation. She has a job that she enjoys, but no relationships that are meaningful enough, and she fears the possibility of settling in life. Both characters’ battles with unrealistic expectations are resonant. Both dark and light humor are employed throughout, emphasizing that not everything is either all happy or entirely sad, while pop cultural references and witty banter help to make the novel relevant.

Characters’ thoughts and feelings are expressed in open terms, making understanding them effortless. However, though they’re dealing with hefty issues, the characters have limited depth. Marc rests in his attempts to figure out who he is and what he wants, while Lauren’s backstory is limited, her motivations explored only in terms of how they serve the book’s overarching themes. Analyses of Lauren’s therapy methods, and Marc’s mental condition, are minimal.

The novel deals with complex subject matters, including love, heartbreak, suicide, and healing, and its ending feels hasty in comparison, summing up years in a handful of pages. Still, Social Work is a thoughtful novel about self-understanding and the need to be understood by others, in which finding a happy medium between grandiose expectations and reality is made central.

Reviewed by Ian Dailey
June 5, 2020

Social Work
Thomas Duffy
Independently Published
9781694404688             $10.99
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1694404684 

Marc Ziller meets social worker Lauren after his suicide attempt and their encounter changes both of their lives in Social Work, which explores their relationship against the backdrop of a psychiatric hospital in New York City. 

From the beginning, Thomas Duffy excels in an approach that explores social worker Lauren's hopes, motivations, beliefs and psyche as much as patient Marc's life. Lauren's worry about Marc's size and her vulnerability being alone in a room with a suicidal stranger she really doesn't know provides a realistic introduction to her first encounter to him, reinforcing the idea that this story will be realistic and psychologically astute. 

As Marc recovers, begins to date, and relies on Lauren for life advice at difficult moments, he begins to consider the type of life and partner he needs to pursue: "He was lonely and didn't really want to date someone with a high profile career. He wanted someone who could relate to his loneliness and understand how he felt hopeless at times regarding his life. While he knew being with an employed woman was sensible, he yearned for someone who could understand what he was going through." 

As their professional encounters develop, he comes to acknowledge the distrust and fear that he faces from being truly vulnerable: "He felt if he shared his opinions and feelings with Holly that she'd want to stay as far away from him as possible." 

The reasons why he's afraid to open up in his intimate relationships with different women he encounters in the course of this story are also the same reasons he can't fully allow Lauren into his world before he makes some bad decisions along the way.

As Thomas Duffy carefully charts dialogues and conversations, readers interested in psychological fiction are drawn them into Marc's world, choices, and the relationships he both pursues and keeps at arm's length. The detailed dialogues between Lauren and Marc reinforce the process of becoming a positive person, able to view life's opportunities without fear and with patience rather than a sense of urgency. 

The challenges of daily living are explored as Marc navigates new jobs, new women, a new therapist, and new ideas as they relate to the progression of his independence: "Marc's dreams in contrast with reality seemed to be cruel to him. He would have dreams of love, success and happiness but would wake up in a small apartment with a pile of past due bills by his bed. He had to fight to get himself up the next morning and to get himself to his job." 

Any reader interested in lives of quiet desperation and psychological profiles which capture emotions and reactions rather than artificial high-octane action will welcome Social Work's engrossing exploration of two disparate individuals who operate on different sides of life, but come together for a common cause. 

Social Work – A New York Story

duffythewriter April 1, 2020

Social Work is Thomas Duffy’s seventh book. It is a moving story about a young man named Marc who meets a social worker named Lauren after his attempt at suicide. This story is an exploration of the bond between Marc and Lauren and the problems they face in trying to overcome the obstacles both of them experience trying to achieve their own personal happiness. It is set in New York City. 

Duffy’s thoughts on Social Work

Social Work is a simple story about two people. However, the dialogue between them is far from that. It’s not solely about what is exchanged between Marc and Lauren, it’s what Thomas Duffy chooses to leave out. I would take a guess that he wrestled with that and it’s paid off. The sparseness of the dialogue at chosen moments adds to the air of loneliness which shrouds both of these characters in completely different ways.

I found myself getting frustrated with Marc and wondering why he couldn’t pull himself together and why he was so needy at times, but then instantly felt guilty. That’s real-life though, right? Not knowing how to help someone and getting frustrated when people don’t seem to find their way, or listen, and it’s why we need professionals to navigate those waters and that’s what Lauren does in this book. Her gentle nature and strong sense of values, even when struggling with her own personal situation were the perfect foil for the troubled Marc.

It’s not all loneliness and mental health issues, there are some funny clap-backs and so quite sweet moments which give Social Work an aura of hope and love.

If you enjoyed Marriage Story, give it a go!

Social Work

By: Thomas Duffy
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services
Publication Date: October 2019
ISBN: 978-1694404688
Reviewed by: Barbara Bamberger Scott
Review Date: December 6, 2019

Seasoned novelist Thomas Duffy explores the lives of a social worker, a patient, and the people around them who affect their lives in varied, complex ways in his newest book, Social Work.

Lauren is the social worker, a woman with a solid niche in her profession and an extra talent, an air of positivity that surrounds her and infuses her clients with a wish to follow her example. The latest addition to the hospital group she conducts is a tough customer: Marc tried to kill himself, and wishes he had succeeded. He joins in group and private sessions with Lauren while secretly hoping to get free of the legal restrictions so he can have another try. But there’s something about her approach that begins to affect a turnaround in Marc as it has in others. It isn’t long before he is receiving monthly benefits based on his diagnosis, and has secured a low paying, decent job. And he’s met a woman, Holly, a reality show producer who sees in Marc the kind of unusual personality traits that she’s attracted to. Meanwhile Lauren is also dating; she has connected with Ahmad, who shares her profession and takes a calm, steady careful view of it.

As Marc and Lauren talk one-on-one over the course of several months, they both privately nurse feelings of curiosity and attraction for one another. Lauren sees in Marc a challenging sparkle that is missing in her quietly evolving liaison with Ahmad. Marc clings to Lauren as the only person in his life who tells it like it is and keeps urging him to work, earn, and ultimately prosper. Eventually, they will need to make decisions – about what is best for each, and how to go on growing and progressing.

Duffy’s book is, remarkably, told mostly through conversation. This fits with the nature of his characters’ needs - one a dedicated counselor, the other a conflicted, inventive but lonely soul. As the talks continue, the helper and helping roles are often interchanged, as Marc, despite his needs and hang-ups, has much genuine wisdom to impart, and Lauren, despite her professional demeanor, is seeking the offbeat intuition that he has to share. By means of their mutually therapeutic talks together and with their chosen friends and lovers, the author reveals nuance and depth in a broad range of human relationships. Duffy himself is a social media reviewer who has had contact with notable actors and directors; he adds this dimension to the pursuits of, and discussions among, his protagonists. Their inner circumspection and outer circumstances keep changing in unexpected ways, at a fast clip, making this a compelling read.

Quill says: Thomas Duffy is a practiced novelist whose work has tackled many diverse human connections. Social Work, with its cinematic feel, and vibrant, believable characters seems poised for wide acclaim.

We’re all living a life full of ups, downs, and happy middle ground. What we go through shouldn’t be the pinnacle on deciding whether or not life is worth living. Life grants us plenty of opportunities to experience both love and loss, but we must hold up our end to see every good and bad moment through. The support of individuals working in the field of caring for other’s physical and mental well-being are the true soldiers assisting in combat. Learn and unveil what can develop into something magical with a second chance to do life differently.

In Social Work, author Thomas Duffy introduces his audience to an individual named Marc, who attempted suicide and was found by professionals willing to help him see a life worth living. From his stay in the hospital, he had opportunities to cope with what he had done while living amongst other individuals who too wanted to see the reason for life. A social worker named Lauren interacted with Marc in therapy sessions and soon learned that what Marc did was only an act out of his lowest state of depression. She saw him as a smart man who made a mistake and believes he’s working harder to keep all that he’s attaining now from the help he’s getting. Although while Marc was in therapy sessions and taking medication, he spent time continuously looking for someone to share his life with, but in all the wrong places. Life was manageable, looking for work to support himself, he wanted that level of excitement and happiness with someone. Of course, Lauren wanted him to focus more on getting a stable job because dating requires money, he never once felt she was judging him, just offered caring advice. The characters in this book speak volumes of different personalities and thought processes of what life truly means to them. It points out that even though people can have everything and lose it all with a single thought of ending their life, it can take a lot of time, work, and effort to rebuild. Many are grateful for social workers that care enough to assist them in getting back into society amongst the rest of the world.

Throughout this book, I came to an understanding that no one truly knows what the next man or woman is going through in their own world. The judgment of others shouldn’t even be a thought that crosses anyone’s mind. People are out here suffering and seeking someone to care enough to pay them more attention when others fail them. It recognizes the job of being a social worker and how working with certain individuals can take a toll on your life if you let it. Lauren was an amazing woman who saw beyond the surface of all her patients, especially in Marc’s case. She saw his potential and that his mistake shouldn’t be the highlight of his “second chance” at life.

I enjoyed reading about someone who believed that they wanted to live a better life with their second chance. He overcame his mistake and didn’t want that to happen again. All it takes is someone to care for other people for people to realize they belong amongst the living and have the same right as anyone else to be on Earth. I highly recommend everyone who feels life could be challenging to give this a read, we all have our own battles to fight, but there are people who will be in your corner cheering you on to keep living and fighting.

Excerpts:

Speaking of Marc and Lauren's bond:

:"But despite their somewhat dysfunctional dynamic, their mutual care for each other becomes clear over time and their poignant relationship is skillfully depicted by the author."

"There is a rich moment of satisfaction when Marc finally stands up for himself and assertively confronts this ex, who had rejected him based on his mental health. He declares: “I’m a person. My disability doesn’t define me nor does it define what I am capable of.” 

In Social Work author Thomas Duffy, follows his characters through their everyday lives as they work toward their respective goals. Marc attends counseling sessions with his social worker, Lauren. Marc has a rocky past to work through as Lauren has a budding relationship with her boyfriend, Ahmad, that she is building simultaneously.

Both main characters are so relatable. Duffy doesn’t shy away from Marc’s struggles or the struggles of those in his counseling group. Marc had taken some less than savory paths and ended up in a very dark place, eventually attempting to take his own life. Lauren shows him that there is hope and that life is worth living. Readers will identify with Marc’s lows and many will also identify with stepping into the shoes of those who help to lift others out of the abyss.

Lauren is an excellent social worker, and seems to really follow the rule book. She keeps counselor/patient boundaries very clear, at first anyway, but does seem to struggle with letting Marc go once she decides to leave her job. The two had developed a close but appropriate working relationship. She feels guilty when she decides to leave, and struggles with being another person in a list of those who have deserted Marc. Handing Marc over to another social worker felt like giving up on him or throwing him away to both parties involved.

Duffy also delves into relationship complications that both main characters experience. Both Marc and Lauren have their own problems in love. Marc falls for a series of girls who are never quite fitting for what he needs. Lauren hints that her now fiance, Ahmad, isn’t her type but provides her with stability and prospects for the future. Admittedly, Marc is her type, but that doesn’t seem to be an option.

Thomas Duffy also examines a predicament that many of us find ourselves in. Marc is ambitious. He has big dreams, but not a big bank account. Instead of following his dreams, he is forced at times to settle. He wants to get into the entertainment industry, but isn’t independently wealthy. This means he can’t afford to put his job to start up any projects. This leaves him to work in a job that is unfulfilling.

This is the second Duffy book I have read. His style is simple, including lots of back and forth conversation between characters that gives readers a fly-on-the-wall sort of feeling. We hear what the characters say to one another, but we are also privy to their internal dialogue. This gives a unique perspective into how people feel verses what they show to the world. He gives a glimpse into humanity’s dynamic that we are all familiar with but don’t often talk about.

Social Work flows well and is easy to understand. The characters are endearing and relatable which got me invested in the characters.

Pages: 272 | ISBN: 1694404684

Book Review

Reviewed by K.C. Finn for Readers' Favorite

Social Work is a work of literary style fiction focused on interpersonal drama and human connection and was penned by author Thomas Duffy. Duffy’s seventh novel, this emotive and highly moving tale features central pair, Marc and Lauren. As Marc recovers from a suicide attempt, social worker Lauren connects with him in an attempt to help him back to normal. But the road to true happiness is not smooth for either of them, and the backdrop of New York City plays host to a wide range of emotions as their bond deepens over the obstacles they must both overcome. What follows is a gripping drama with deep-rooted, poignant commentary on the human condition.

Author Thomas Duffy has a keen sense of what makes people tick, and that resonance of the soul runs throughout his dramatic novel to keep readers glued to the psychological and emotional plight of Marc and Lauren. The slow-burning plot will suit readers who favor literary and character-led fiction, exploring the reasons for Marc’s deeds and the ways in which Lauren is able to relate to him through her work. The question of happiness is highly pertinent and reflects back on the reader to keep you thinking about it long after you’ve set the book down at night. Overall, Social Work is an exceedingly well written, highly intelligent and intrinsically human drama that is sure to captivate its readers from the start. I would highly recommend it for fans of contemporary emotive drama and psychological non-thriller fiction.

★★★★   In Social Work by Thomas Duffy, a clinical social worker named Lauren and a young hospital patient named Marc get to know each other over the course of numerous therapy sessions focusing on Marc’s recovery after a suicide attempt. Lauren guides Marc through a maze of failed relationships and dead-end jobs, all the while struggling with her own feelings for him and trying to keep their connection strictly professional. At the same time, Lauren is dealing with significant dilemmas of her own. Recently married, she feels it might be time to leave her job and start creating the family she has always wanted. But how can she do that when patients like Marc would be left without her much-needed guidance?

Humorous, hopeful, and charmingly helter-skelter, Social Work is a substantial work that examines multiple symptoms of modern society, including—thanks to social media and online dating—an inability to connect meaningfully with one another, coupled with the repeated feeling that we are missing out on something big. In addition, Duffy dissects some of the significant failings of twenty-first century medicine, particularly in its lack of regard for people with mental health issues and the special resources they require to recover properly. Aside from the commendable authorial commentary, Social Work is a sprawling account of one young man’s uncertain journey through New York City. One of the book’s big messages is that Marc’s mental illness does not define him, and so readers are treated to a remarkably well-rounded interpretation of a character at his nadir—and the few special people in his life who help him get through it all.

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.

Reviewed By: Kristi Elizabeth

AuthorThomas Duffy

Star Count3.5/5

Author Thomas Duffy pulls back the curtain on mental health and overcoming trauma in a raw and challenging new novel, Social Work. The lines between any patient and healer can grow blurry, particularly in emotionally vulnerable spaces; this complex navigation takes center stage in the novel, leaning into discomfort and forcing readers to consider their own moral boundaries in authentic, thought-provoking ways.

Marc is an unemployed 28-year-old who recently failed to take his own life, while Lauren is a therapist who isn’t completely sure she has the heart for such an emotionally demanding job. Marc doesn’t think he needs help, and Lauren finds herself unable to keep him off her mind. Initially, their relationship is strictly professional, but after Marc leaves the hospital, their connection becomes a bit murkier. As they both pursue other relationships, attempting to live normal lives, their bond as patient and therapist continues to evolve, forever edging towards impropriety.

The novel plays out in a back-and-forth style, with perspectives bouncing between these two unpredictable characters. The structure of the book has each character going off into their own relatively cyclical lives and then coming back together for therapy sessions, where they challenge, encourage, inspire and handicap one another. Marc seems perpetually dissatisfied with the limitations of his own life, while Lauren feels torn by her ethical responsibilities, even as she moves into a more serious relationship with a new partner of her own.

The plot relies heavily on dialogue and character interactions, but also provides glimpses into the internal narrative of the two focal figures, giving readers a somewhat complete picture of their emotional states. Over the course of the novel, Marc and Lauren spiral and succeed, fall in love, and experience great loss – in tandem, but never together – creating a sense of forbidden connection that pervades the pages.

The story strikes a painfully authentic chord for anyone who has ever danced on the edge of an ethical knife, but it stumbles in the execution of the plot. Some of the narrative elements feel repetitive, or unproductive, such as Marc’s redundant relationship struggles and longing for notoriety without putting in actual effort. Similarly, Lauren’s uncertainty about making decisions in her life seems to lack any narrative arc, and her unfulfilled attraction to Marc doesn’t seem entirely justified. For a story that initially seems centered on therapy and mental health following a suicide attempt, those delicate subjects soon take a backseat to relatively commonplace explorations of romance.

On the technical side, a lack of descriptive language and a tendency towards procedural passages makes the pacing inconsistent. The book is heavily dependent on dialogue, as mentioned, but much of it lacks the ring of organic speech, and seems purely functional within the progress of the plot. Additionally, some of the more immature musings are reflective of Marc’s one-note personality, but also give the book the feeling of a young adult work, especially considering one of the characters is a trained therapist.

That being said, Social Work tackles a number of difficult subjects fearlessly, and Duffy’s writing has an endearing earnestness that draws the reader in to these characters’ lives.

Social Work
by Thomas Duffy
Amazon Digital Services LLC

book review by Jonah Meyer

"The therapist-patient relationship is a tricky one. I don’t believe it’s supposed to be everlasting. A good therapist points their patient in the right direction."

It is a suicide attempt that first brings Marc to the behavioral health unit of the hospital where he meets Lauren, his therapist and caseworker. It’s difficult for Marc when his sessions are over with Lauren, as he has grown accustomed to sharing his struggles with her and receiving advice. Now, he feels he will have to “start all over” with a new therapist. To add to his already struggling life, Marc somehow makes his way onto a live taping of a new reality show featuring the first in-person dates of couples who’ve only met online, only to be utterly humiliated on TV, with a slew of negative online comments directed his way. Will he ever find the “normal life” he seeks—a loving and committed partner and a steady, fulfilling job to pay the bills?

Duffy’s book paints a realistic and fascinating picture of both the group and the one-on-one therapy sessions Marc undertakes in trying to get his life back together. At its heart, this is a book about relationships—relationships between a therapist and her patient, between the protagonist Marc and the women he dates, between him and his co-workers at the pharmacy, and even the relationship between the main character and his “mental illness.” The text is heavy with dialogue—and in this particular case, that is one of its strengths. The dialogue here is ultra-realistic, perhaps worthy of an adaption to the big screen. One can easily imagine it to be a film, refreshing in that it contains no special effects, just a good story that is character-driven and punctuated by plenty of humorous moments.

RECOMMENDED by the US Review