This really kept me hooked, it was captivating in the best way, like nothing I've ever read before. Not necessarily one I'd re read but the cast of weird and wonderful characters will stay with more for a while!

a novel about a woman in her 40s who transcribes sex therapy is an undeniably intriguing concept, and jen beagin has written it incredibly. despite the content being quirky and unique, there is something so familiar about the writing, as if the story is being told specifically to you.

there is a very specific kind of humour in this that may not work for a lot of people, but it definitely worked for me. I also think that dialogue can be a tricky thing to rely on in novels, but the the dialogue is balanced so well (especially when jumping in and out of transcripts) that the book just wouldn’t work without it.

I think big swiss is going to be a favourite queer read for many, myself included.

thank you to netgalley and the publishers for this digital arc in exchange for review !

Really weird but in a good way- I think?
Parts of this I really loved and I thought were really excellent. I loved the relationship with piñon especially. I felt that parts of the book weren’t very connected and it felt very fractured as though different edits had been pushed together and the novel was at different stages of completion in these parts.
I think above all this is a good book but I didn’t like it or enjoy reading it necessarily? I loved the moshfeghesque grotesque and detached style but it just wasn’t for me ultimately.

HUDSON, a small town in upstate New York is teeming with hipster transplants from the Big Apple, who have migrated there on the back of city success to escape the rat race by setting up artisan businesses that they don’t really need to be successful at, all to wallow in their various neuroses.
What they need to survive, along with someone reliable to keep them in a constant supply of good quality marijuana and enough coffee shops and wine bars to choose somewhere different every day of the week, is a discreet sex therapist to help them work through affairs, weird kinks and general malcontent.
They have found such a therapist in Om, a self-styled guru, clad in hemp shorts and t-shirts, who employs a woman by the name of Greta to transcribe his sessions, ostensibly in order to help him with clarity when writing his book.
Greta herself is a fairly recent transplant to the town, however she has come there from the mid-West, fresh from a break-up that has forced her to reconsider her life choices. She has moved in with an old friend who owns a huge, bee-infested, ramshackle house just outside of town, where she works her own hours listening to and recording Om’s meetings with his patients.
Patient-client confidentiality is honoured by not disclosing any names, but in a town as small as Hudson, and the tendency for the patients to have big, distinct personalities, it is not hard for Greta to put faces to the voices when she is at her favourite café or out shopping for groceries.
Greta is discreet, so it doesn’t matter much. That is, until the woman she designates Big Swiss comes along. Big Swiss is a gynaecologist in her late-twenties and is given the moniker as a result of her nationality and no-nonsense personality.
Greta is fascinated by this vibrant creature from the off, not least because she is participating in the sessions with Om because of a horrendous past assault that she is still trying to come to terms with. Big Swiss is married to a nondescript man, their sex life is pedestrian and she is trying to reconcile it all healthily.
Greta looks forward to transcribing these interactions, as she sits in her rickety old room that requires a constant issue of wood into a stove to keep it warm. The house in which she lives is almost alive – with memory, with history but most of all with insect infestations, and is a fitting backdrop to this quirky story, that deals with trauma, complex relationships and morality in a distinctively idiosyncratic style.
When Greta and Big Swiss – real name Flavia – finally meet, it’s at a dog park, where Greta’s beloved Jack Russell mix takes a shine to Flavia’s sophisticated purebred hound. Greta hastily constructs and identity for herself so that she is not linked to Om or the transcription job, immediately creating a skewed balance of power between the two women’s friendship, which quickly becomes an affair.
Big Swiss continues to see Om, and Greta continues to transcribe their sessions, giving her a unique insight into how her lover is feeling about their relationship. She knows it’s wrong but to expose her deception would cause unemployment as well as the loss of this surprising new relationship, so she keeps up the pretence as long as she possibly can.
Alongside the main narrative is the off-kilter hipster world in which Greta and Flavia live, which also contains Flavia’s attacker, who is due out of prison on parole. His malevolent presence is somehow more acute for Greta, who, not knowing what he actually looks like, sees him around every corner. Flavia, on the other hand, is suspiciously blasé about his release, to the point of denial.
Greta is a funny narrator, who is frequently bewildered by the situations she willingly inserts herself into, and there is more to Flavia than your typical object of fascination, having opinions and a moral standing that is anything but mutual.
For all the sexual politics and shocking trauma of Big Swiss, it’s mostly a not-even-very-darkly comic tale of later-life self-discovery and the lies we tell ourselves and those close to us to fit in with our own perception of identity.

This was unhinged in the best way. I wasn’t sure what was going on or what was going to happen, but as the story slowly unfolded, I grew attached to Greta and Big Swiss (honestly, what an incredible nickname). I didn’t even mind the deceptive lies that Greta found herself stuck in, and it’s normally something that really stresses me out. I liked Greta’s obsession with Piñon, and I even liked Om?! I found the town and houses really easy to picture as well, but I am just realising now that, in my head, the story takes place in Forkes, and Big Swiss lives in the Cullen’s house. I think that’s just me, though.

4.5

I'm not even going to try to do justice to this book by talking about the plot. All I will say is this book is interesting, memorable and captivating. Some of the scenes are toe-curlingly awkward, the dialogue is understatedly hilarious and it's dark, so dark. But it's brilliant and I immediately want to read it again. It's simply brilliant.

Delightfully weird and utterly compelling, BIG SWISS is a serious page-turner. It’s like the best Ottessa Moshfegh you ever read, crossed with a whole cast of bizarre but endearing characters. A must-read for 2023.

I wanted to enjoy this more than I did - it just felt a bit directionless. However the characters were entertaining in their own way so I don't regret reading it.

Strange, curious, at times confusing but deliberately so. This novel debated the idea that our trauma defines us and our past determines our futures, refuting a simplistic idea of cause and effect which opened up the novel in a way that made it impossible to guess where it was going to go next or why.

The chaos within the ‘unhinged’ protagonist spread across her home, her town and all of her relationships, creating a story that was joyously weird and wide-ranging, and full of unique characters that were captivating precisely because they refused to be explained neatly or to surrender their individual perspectives (it wasn’t just the narrator who was unreliable, it was every single character).

Although the novel encapsulates serious, heavy questions, it remains funny and macabre throughout and it feels impossible to put down.

Big Swiss (Hardback)
Big Swiss (Hardback) by Jen Beagin
Hardback edition
“Beagin understands the human condition and writes introspection in a way that is unerring and never contrived”
I love a weird rompy novel like this where the main character's aren't necessarily unlikeable, but you're not sure whether they're 100% redeemable either. Greta spends her days transcribing therapy sessions for sex therapist OM. 'Big Swiss' is one of his new clients with a traumatic past and, to Greta, an enticing allure. She knows her only by her initials FEW and the more Greta transcribes her sessions, the more she is pulled into a parasocial relationship with Big Swiss' voice. Greta is someone who loves to lie and when she finds herself coincidently meeting these people who she only knows by voice, she has to pretend that she doesn't know them, and in many cases, decides to build a relationship with them anyway. Consequently, this gets her into trouble, and I just loved the almost unrealistic but still, in many ways, believable and ever entertaining narrative of this novel. Jen Beagin has expertly crafted this cast of characters, and I appreciated so much that they were all older. Many other books of this genre feature women in their older teens or early 20's and I found this to be a refreshing change. Beagin really understands the human condition and writes introspection in a way that is unerring and never contrived. I found the animals, such as the bees and Greta's dog, Pinon, to be so endearing also! The narrative, style and tone reminded me of Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead, but it was also Moshfeghian in some ways. I was honestly so very charmed by this story and I can't wait for the upcoming adaptation!

It took me a while to get into Big Swiss, I couldn't work out where it was going but once I gave up trying to figure that out and just went with it, I began to enjoy it. The main character , Greta is a transcriptionist for a sex therapist and falls in love with one of the clients through listening to and transcribing her sessions. There are some great characters in this and its a weird but entertaining read. I did find it a smidgen too long and felt some parts dragged a little but the characters and humour kept me reading. Overall a 3 star read for me, had it been a bit more tightly paced, I would have loved it.

Greta is a transcriber for a Sex Therapist and she becomes infatuated with a patient (Big Swiss) via her transcripts. They come to meet in real life and embark on an unusual and not entirely honest relationship.

This book was a wild ride.

The main protagonist is obnoxious and offensive, seemingly with intent. Her love interest is equally unlikeable and hard to tolerate. They are both products of pain and trauma. Together they are fascinating as they move at break need speed towards disaster.

The peripheral characters of Om and Sabine are fabulous - this story would be nothing without them. I felt the same about the town of Hudson which is described so cynically it made me laugh out loud.

I did feel some serious issues were dealt with somewhat flippantly so it's important to check the trigger warnings if you're going to pick this up however I do appreciate it's a satire.

The writing is distinctive, fresh and funny.

The story is off the chart wacky.

At times it squeezed my heart, at times it made me laugh, at times it was dark, uncomfortable and disturbing.

I read compulsively until I was done.

It was totally addictive

I haven’t quite managed to finish Big Swiss yet but while I’m torn about how much I like it, I do think I’ll finish reading. It’s hard to tell where the plot is going, and it seems to run in the circles of Greta’s thoughts, but I love the weird and wonderful characters so far.

Big Swiss is going to be a divisive book. It has unlikeable - and often incomprehensible - protagonists, a plot which occasionally meanders into bizarre territory, a lot of nudity and sapphic sex and too many bad decisions to count. So, obviously, I loved it. It was so refreshing to read about an older female protagonist being messy and doing deeply regrettable, cringeworthy things. After reading numerous books about 20 and 30 somethings who feel lost and unsure what to do with their life, it was liberating (and surprisingly) to read a book where a 45 year old woman attempts to drive her life off a cliff. She dumps her stable, loyal boyfriend. She quits her stable, loyal, job. She goes to live with a woman who 'kidnaps' her in a crumbling old house where she sleeps in a cupboard with her dog and seduces a woman who doesn't know who Bruce Springsteen is and carries a carrier bag full of snacks with her at all times (again, deeply relatable.)

Big Swiss is quirky without feeling mannered. I've read so many books featuring 'eccentric' heroines who feel unrealistic or just plain terrible. Greta is a deeply awful person, and yet I sympathised with her and wanted her to get a happy ending, whatever that looked like.

For once, the blurbs are right. Big Swiss will make you laugh. It will make you cry. It will make you hate every single character in it at some point, bar the dog Pinōn (although he does have a habit of killing rabbits and humping other dogs.) Dive in headfirst and enjoy the ride.

Big Swiss by Jen Beagin* is a great addition to the litfic subgenre of messed up female protagonists doing messed up things - think My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Milk Fed etc. Greta is a 45-year-old woman living in a derelict farmhouse in upstate New York. Greta is disenchanted with life for a variety of reasons, not least her massive childhood trauma, and lives somewhat on the fringes of society, marching to the beat of her own drum and eschewing all the trappings of modernity, social norms and commonly accepted conduct.

Despite her best efforts to the contrary, Greta finds herself drawn deeply into the community of her wealthy Hudson Valley enclave when she takes a job as a transcriptionist for an alternative sex therapist named Om. She comes to recognise his local clients by their voices and identifies them by their sexual proclivities when she encounters them around the town which, in truth, leads to some of the funniest parts of the book. Greta becomes especially fascinated by a new patient, Flavia, whom she refers to as Big Swiss (Flavia is tall and, you guessed it, Swiss) and when the two meet by chance at the dog park, they begin an imbalanced and manipulative affair, one where Greta knows everything about Flavia and Flavia thinks Greta’s name is Rebekah.

The characterisation is fantastic, right down to Om, Greta’s housemate Sabine and even Flavia’s dopey husband, and there is some laugh-out-loud funny parts if you enjoy gallows humour, but I found that I was bored at multiple points throughout (I am a mood reader so take this with a grain of salt). I do recommend that you read if you enjoyed either of the earlier mentioned books and I will absolutely be watching the HBO adaption with Jodie Comer as Flavia but, yeah, it just didn’t fully hit the mark for me at this moment in time.

This is a Marmite book: you love it or you hate it but I'm more in the I don't know field. It starts strong, there's humour and Greta is a character you love to hate.
My attention waned as soon as the characters met in real life and I struggled
Even if I wasn't a huge fan of this story I think a lot of people will love it.
3.75 upped to 4
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

I love an unhinged woman as much as the next person, but something about Greta just didn’t draw me in. I didn’t like her character at all, and I felt that her interactions were very stilted, especially with Flavia. The way she was written felt very odd to me, and I don’t know if that was intentional from the author to really drive home how much of a mess Greta is, but it just didn’t work for my liking.

There were also a few casual racist comments thrown in, with no discussion of these whatsoever. I could understand if the author chose to use these phrases and then challenged them with use of another character, but to just let them slide and hope we wouldn’t notice is a step too far in my opinion.

I also think the plot was pretty lacklustre. It was a very character-driven book which is fine, but there has be *some* level of plot to carry a book from start to finish, right?

I really wanted to love this book. I tried hard to make myself find elements I enjoyed as I had seen lots of great reviews going around. I can appreciate the choice of writing style and understand why some people really loved it, but this one just wasn’t for me sadly.

‘Big Swiss’ follows Greta, a a sex therapist’s transcriptionist who falls in love with a client while listening to her sessions. When they accidentally meet in real life, an explosive affair ensues - one that will force Greta to reckon with her own buried traumas.

‘Big Swiss’ by is truly a psychedelic explosion of a novel, wildly unpredictable and intensely funny. It took me on an emotional, and visceral, journey - but the method of transport was a rickety old tractor doing 100mph towards a sheer cliff face. Riding with Greta at the steering wheel was a real treat too; a messy, middle-aged character with complex emotions, who I loved in spite of her (many) flaws, she really carried the novel for me.

I didn’t always understand completely what Beagin was trying to achieve plot-wise, but the choatic vibes of this novel were enough to satisfy me! The author’s ruminations on trauma - it’s weight, it’s hierarchies, it’s potential use as a crutch) - were truly excellent.

I know that Big Swiss is going to be immensely popular once it is officially released!

What did I think of Big Swiss? It wasn’t quite what I expected but before you say, oh dear it was totally unexpected in a very good way. I mean who wouldn’t love to listen in to a therapy session, especially a sex therapy session. Greta definitely loved it as she transcribed the session for Om, the strangely named and highly unusual therapist. Did we or his clients really want to know of his own issues or be drowned in one of his sound baths.
It certainly puts coded for some laugh out moments.
Big Swiss was one of his clients and a chance meeting in a dog park threw Greta and Big Swiss together, Greta held all the power and knowledge and you laughed and held your breath as she tried and sometimes failed to let slip the odd remark learnt from her transcribing.
Their relationship was complex, Big Swiss, younger, unusual, domineering, yet somehow it worked. They fed off each other, shared past trauma’s and you got the feeling there was some love, fondness.
You always knew that trouble would arrive if and when Big Swiss finally found it who Greta really was and it was fun and at times emotional to watch it all unfold.
One aside, and one character I couldn’t forget was the run down aged farmhouse Greta resided in. It’s broken windows, it’s colony of bees and collection of eclectic furniture, not forgetting it’s owner Sabine added to the uniqueness of this quirky wonderful debut novel.

I loved this quirky book about Greta. Full of interesting characters, there were some brilliant witty one-liners mixed in with what is essentially a sad story about a woman who's never really recovered from losing her mother to suicide. Beautifully written, I loved the bees and Greta's lovely little dog too.