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16 of 18 found the following review helpful:
 terrific character study Jan 05, 2010
By Harriet Klausner
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 found the following review helpful:
A New York state of mind Jan 03, 2010
By M. Northrop
"Michael Northrop"
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 found the following review helpful:
A very engaging, darkly humorous read Jun 03, 2010
By Elizabeth A. White
"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.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
 3 1/2 Stars from "Red Adept Reviews" Mar 02, 2011
By Lynn ODell
"Red Adept Reviews - A Blog"
Plot/Storyline: 3 1/2 Stars
While this novel really pulled me in with the opening scenes, it really sagged under its own weight in the middle. I enjoyed every section that built the storyline, but there were way too many long stretches that strayed from the point.
There were plenty of scenes that explained Sophie's problems, but unfortunately, they were diluted by so many irrelevant ones. At the beginning, I had real trouble figuring out what was so wrong with her life. Her boyfriend appeared perfect, and she was going to marry him. She had a job she loved. Sure, she had a nutty family, but that's certainly not unusual. It took forever to find out what was wrong with the boyfriend. There weren't even any real hints along the way, which there should have been since his marriage proposal appeared to be what set off Sophie's condition.
While most of this novel was very realistic, the scenes involving Sophie's visits to her psychiatrist are ridiculously improbable. At least, I hope they were. Her psychiatrist was like a caricature from a comedy skit. He only nodded or said things like, "And how did that make you feel?" Okay, perhaps there are some lousy therapists out there. However, Sophie could not eat! She was slowly starving herself. Surely, the guy would have noticed how much weight she was losing and been a little concerned.
A humorous side note: At one point Sophie gets a call on her cell phone while she is busy with someone. She checks the caller ID, then turns off her phone, or at least that's what she said, "I turned it off." Later, as she is walking out the door, her phone vibrates in her purse to tell her she has a missed call. I'm glad my phone doesn't do things like that after I turn it off. If it did, I would change my ringtone to the theme for "The Twilight Zone." (Because she could have meant that she turned the ringer off, I'm still giving this the benefit of the doubt.)
The ending was enjoyable. It wrapped up all relevant plot threads without descending into "Happily Ever After Land."
Characters: 4 Stars
I found Sophie to be an intriguing, multi-level character. I think I really related to her because I am a `slow to boil' person, also, who has trouble showing anger. I think people who are better at it, especially those who `fly off the handle' easily, don't understand this personality type. And, those who do have trouble expressing anger, like Sophie, often have it manifest physically.
Sophie's boyfriend, whom she gets engaged to early in the novel, was too flat and stereotypical. Even though he is an integral part of the story, he doesn't get the face time required for readers to delve into his personality. Instead, everything about him must be inferred, which is rather unfair to him, if it's possible to be unfair to a fictional character. Don't get me wrong. I had zero sympathy for him. However, that's because his character didn't evoke many feelings at all, with the exception of one short scene. That one scene happened too late in the novel to make much impact.
The supporting cast had many delightful characters, my favorite being Sophie's two best friends.
Writing Style: 3 Stars
The sentence structure in this novel gave me a great deal of irritation. The author would drop the subject from her sentences. At first, I thought it wsa an editing problem. However, after it happened so often, I realized it was just the writing style. Now, this might have been okay in a diary-like format, but in this book, it occurred at such odd times that I found myself reading sentences more than once, or even backing up to see if I had missed something.
The descriptions were very well done with some good analogies. I also enjoyed the dialogue, especially in the phone calls from one of Sophie's clients.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Swallow Nov 29, 2010
By Kindle Books Reviewed
Tonya Plank's Swallow is a uniquely familiar book. A rough outline of the plot will be familiar to readers: A small town girl with self-esteem issues is a young professional in the big city. She overcomes pressures and psychological issues to make her own way in the world. That plot has been done a few hundred times. Of course, at there core, most books have familiar plots. What sets one book apart from hundreds of other similar books are the details, and Plank does deliver uniqueness in the details.
First, main character Sophie Hegel's self-esteem issues manifest as an inability to swallow; she feels what she describes as a fist-sized ball in her throat that sometimes prevents her from talking, breathing and swallowing normally. Consequently, Sophie loses a lot of weight. Since she's a lawyer, I kept picturing Ally McBeal every time the author goes in to detail about dress sizes. To fix this swallowing problem, Sophie must confront her personal issues and gain confidence in herself. The uniqueness of Sophie's problem keeps the familiar plot fresh.
The other thing that Plank does uniquely is to write an intelligent character who actually is intelligent. Far too often in this type of work, writers tell the reader over and over again how brilliant the main character is. Plank resists that urge and just shows us Sophie's intelligence. Sophie is a fictional lawyer who actually uses legal terminology correctly. Similarly, the conversations between Sophie and her fiance discuss intellectual issues appropriately.
Swallow does have a few flaws. Of little importance to me are a small handful of grammatical and spelling errors that may turn off some readers. More importantly, the middle section of the book drags on longer than necessary. At the same time, the primary swallowing issue is shunted somewhat to the side. Instead, we are given conflicts between Sophie and her family, and then a conflict between Sophie and a female friend of her fiance. While these sections are important to show the issues that Sophie must overcome, the pacing is off.
Fans of this genre should check out Swallow and look for future books by the author.
The author provided me with a review copy of the book.
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