Big Swiss by Jen Beagin
| Big Swiss by Jen Beagin | |
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| Category: Humour | |
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Reviewer: Heather Magee
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| Summary: A plotline worthy of its TV adaptation, with Jodie Comer playing as Big Swiss. Original and brilliant. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 336 | Date: December 2023 |
| Publisher: Faber & Faber | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-0571378579 | |
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I found the premise of this book totally original and addictive. Greta possesses the power to know the population of Hudson, New York's darkest secrets, their intimate lives, their fetishes and fears. How? Her job is to transcribe their sex therapy sessions. Sure, there's a confidentiality agreement, as the sex coach who calls himself Om keeps reminding her, but that just makes it more exciting. Like we've all probably wished for at some point in life, Greta can exist passively, placidly, as a fly on the wall. That is, until Greta decides to unglue her fly-feet from the safety of the wall and buzz far too close to the sun. The sun in this analogy is the sex coach's newest patient, who Greta dubs 'Big Swiss', and who, like the sun, is bright, blonde and beautiful - and irresistible to Greta. Suddenly, the confidentiality agreement, the ethics of her professional position, her loyalties to Om, fly out of the window. She's in too deep.
I've seen a lot of people comparing Beagin's style and approach to Otessa Moshfegh. I do see many parallels, but to be honest Beagin had more humour, more whimsy and exuberance, whilst not shying away from heavy themes. Probably, the therapy format helped with that. The overall tone I would categorise as tongue in cheek, but Beagin does often move into the territory of sincerity, which offers accents of roundedness to an otherwise witty, harsh, sharp-edged shape.
Having said this, Both Greta and Big Swiss frequently mock and openly despise Om's psychobabble as the novel unfolds and end up using this very same language towards the end when their inner suffering and repressed pain emerge. This progression arc felt slightly on the nose for me, as a satire of modern therapy would have been more in keeping with the aura of this book than a kind of ode to it.
I think this resolution is why after the climax about halfway through the book with the premise out of the way, Beagin had her work cut out for her in trying to propel the story further than the inevitable fallout of Greta's woeful decision-making. The ending was very strange in this way; it sort of slid away from the dynamic that had become so central to the plot and landed awkwardly on its face. I think many readers would agree that the denouement lasted too long, and ultimately did not add much to the overall story.
The stylistic choice to compose the transcripts on the page instead of narrating the stories told accelerated the pace of reading and were some of my favourite sections. Like Greta, the reader finds themselves itching to see what Om's patients, specifically Big Swiss, have to say next. We also see Greta's diary entries, and text message exchanges. This means we are fully inside the minds and desires of the characters in this story, and the grizzly, gross and weird details that surface sometimes end up feeling a bit too close for comfort, which was why I was admittedly relieved to let them go upon closing the book.
Overall, Big Swiss is undeniably intriguing, offering a fresh, sometimes uncomfortable, but ultimately thought-provoking experience that will resonate with readers looking for something unconventional in the realm of contemporary fiction. For more literary fiction featuring wild female protagonists exhibiting unhinged behaviours, read My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Otessa Moshfegh.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Big Swiss by Jen Beagin at Amazon.com.
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