So weird and fun! This felt like what Otessa wants to write like. I love to see a feral no reliable female character who has aged and still remains messy and awkward. Really excited that Jen Beagin is writing still and only getting better in her craft as time goes on. Excited for more!

Absolutely loved the writing style of this one. So irreverent, so blunt, so chaotic. Big Swiss is perfect for fans of Melissa Broder, Ottessa Moshfegh, and Sayaka Murata.

It started out very promising, but I had a hard time with the time jumps and the tone of the novel just wasn’t for me. I ended up not finishing this novel.

Netgalley ARC. Very dark humor and quirky characters. This book touched on many serious issues, including suicide, assault, and childhood trauma. But despite these heavy topics, I didn’t find this book depressing at all. And I loved the eccentric characters. They did not come across as over-the-top cliches, but authentically flawed, broken people doing their best to survive. #BigSwiss #NetGalley

Thank you to NetGalley, author Jen Beagin, and publisher Scribner for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

This book!!!!!! Big Swiss has been everywhere it seems, from BookTok to articles, about being one of the most anticipated books of February/2023, and I'm happy to report that IT LIVES UP!!! I have a confession to make-- I'm pretty ambivalent about miserable women books. I have loved some (Writers and Lovers, Mostly Dead Things), liked others (Animal), and thought some were just okay/didn't live up to the hype (My Year of Rest and Relaxation). I love an unreliable, unlikeable narrator, but sometimes, this subgenre of books just takes it TOO far to where I really hate the women or are bored by them and don't find anything redeeming about the reading experience. However, Big Swiss is the antithesis of that. There is humor, heart, relatability, sadness, growth, life, and so much more. I could relate to Greta and Flavia both so much in ways, and they felt authentic. I haven't laughed in a book in a while, but this book was genuinely funny in parts while also being heartbreaking in others. The duality of the Beagin's writing style just worked so well in this book, and I was hooked from the start. The premise was unique, and I loved reading the transcript sections. Although I would cringe and feel uncomfortable at the manipulation between Greta and Flavia, I also found myself rooting for both women because hello sapphic storyline!! All the secondary characters are so interesting as well, and I would happily read more books about any of them. There is truly a bit of everything here, and it was refreshing to read a book that felt so new. I already know that this book is going to sit with me, and I can't wait to revisit it.

This is a wild ride! Jen Beagin is insanely imaginative, and I'm here for it. Just the premise alone—the main character is a transcriptionist for a therapist and falls in love with a patient, the titular Big Swiss–is so unique and unexpected, and then Beagin dials it up way, way more as the two get into a relationship with one another. It kept me guessing and engrossed all the way through, and I'm going to go back and read her prior books!

Greta lives in a NY farmhouse and transcribes sex therapy sessions for work. She becomes obsessed with one patient who she calls Big Swiss, and when she hears her voice at a local dog park jumps head first into a fake identity and a real infatuation. Chaotic, queer, and a bit messed up - this was a fun, wild read with characters I absolutely adored. Greta is batshit, but in the best possible way (I think? 🤪). There’s definitely some darkness here, but it’s so well balanced by the genuinely interesting and often charming cast of characters. So good!

Sometime in the early '10s the idea that women can be assholes, too, was a major driving force in entertainment. It felt, at the time, like a feminist break-through.:Yes, women also can be thoughtless! And messy! And unkind! (Remember the first season of Girls?)

But back then that was sort of the end of the entire thought. Jen Beagin's novel Big Swiss focuses on a woman who could have easily been the protagonist of one of the women-can-be-dirtbags-too novels, but it's more complicated than that. In Big Swiss, Beagin looks at the ways that past traumas can shape your life, but not in the usual The-Body-Keeps-the-Score way. Rather, she explores what it's like to resist the trauma narrative, to have had something really very bad happen to you and attempt to not have that singular event fuel your self-perception, It's funny and smart, and Beagin regularly delivers a descriptive line that would stop me in my tracks. I can't believe it took me until now to get wise to her work—I'm going to read everything she's written.

I LOVED this book!!! It was so funny and weird and touching at the same time. If you are looking for dark irreverent humor with a touch of sadness, this book is for you. The audio was also especially well done.

I saw one of my favorite bookstagramers reading this and had to get it myself. I'm not going to lie, it's a little bit out of my comfort zone with it's literary nature (I'm really more of a trash book girl). I totally understood why this was recommended after reading this though.

I love teh therapy world and loved this centering around sex coaching. The characters are so complex but there's also a humor to this. The descriptions of the dutch farmhouse was so descriptive and immediately drew me into the scene.

I'm so excited to hear that this was picked up by HBO and is going to be a series!

Big Swiss is a fever dream of horny neurotic splendor. Rich people making a mess of their lives, women exploring their sexuality mid-life, processing trauma, and a unique spin on a voyeuristic narrator. I loved it. Lust at first read, love at last page.

My review appears on Boston's ArtsFuse

https://artsfuse.org/268793/book-review-big-swiss-quirky-as-all-get-out/

I do not award stars.

Weird, laugh out loud funny, wild ride of a book.

Living in Upstate NY I'm familiar with the specific type of gentrification that's happening to the Hudson Valley and Catskills, and this satirical take on it is spot on. For those of us Townies, it's worth reading just for that. But then about half way through the novel you'll stop and realize that you haven't laughed in a while and notice that the book takes a decided turn in it's tone as you slowly sink into the obsession and dark thoughts with our MC. Not too deep and dark, but just enough to be different and slightly uncomfortable. If we were emotionally invested in the characters, it would be too much, but the nearly clinical feel of the interactions between characters prevents this.

Full of metaphor, this would be an interesting book club selection if you could sell it to the group.

Firstuvall, if you've not read Jen Beagin's first two novels, you must do so now. They are funny & quirky & so very readable. This one, not so much. I didn't like any of the characters (except the animals) and didn't care what happened to them. I'm so very glad folks are finding her, however, and will read what she writes next.

Thanks to the wonderful folks at NetGalley for an advanced reader's copy.

this is a rough month for anticipated reads

I got about 40% through this and honestly couldn't care less. The premise has everything that should intrigue me, yet it never really pulled me in. And at this point I've been picking this up and putting it down for so long that I'm inclined to just stop.

Perhaps I'll return at some point in the future

This book was named in many of the "Books to Anticipate in 2023" lists, so I had to see what it was all abut. And my goodness, am I glad I did.

This is one of the most unique books I have ever read. It is specific and detailed, and it is incredibly easy to slip into the shoes of the narrator and see her world through her eyes. I would call it quirky, but it's actually so quirky that it can only be based in reality, and that is why I loved this story and the characters that Beagin invented so very much.

One of my favorite books in any recent memory, I'll be selfishly using it as a Book Club selection so I have other people to talk about it with!

Oh, I just loved this weird book. I'll eat up every 'zany book about a sad girl who makes terrible decisions' you throw at me, and BIG SWISS has earned a spot on my shelf next to MILK FED, MADE FOR LOVE, SAD JANET, and so many more. Who could resist the premise 'a woman works as a transcriptionist for a sex therapist and falls in love with a patient, sight unseen'? Who can resist miniature donkeys? The absolute weirdest vibes, and so irresistibly fun. Loved this one!

A funny, odd and witty story about two flawed women finding themselves in each other, exploring their sexuality and their pasts, in order to reconcile the people they are today.

Synopsis: Greta lives in a 17th century farmhouse that’s seen better days with her friend Sabine a divorcee adjusting to single life. Greta works transcribing sessions for a therapist named Om and enjoys having a voyeuristic view into the lives of these broken strangers. After hearing a session about Big Swiss, a woman who survives a horrific event, she becomes completely infatuated with her. After crossing paths in a dog park, they begin a relationship that is mutually beneficial for both. There is one problem, big Swiss is married and Greta, carrying the big burden of her childhood trauma must learn each other while also growing as their own person.

I really enjoyed the topics on mental health, healing and exploring something new at various stages of life and accepting others- flaws and all. This story was really quirky and the only other way I could describe it is as an “oddball” of a novel. While very enjoyable and entertaining, the characters were wild and chaotic and sometimes I felt myself lost in their feelings and thoughts (in a good way) and wanted to shake them to make them and make them realize how great they are. This book was unlike any I’ve ever read, though again, in a great way. If you enjoy novels that are character driven and a bit on the edge this book will be for you! Thanks for the #arc @scribner! ♥️

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of Big Swiss by Jen Beagin.

Greta is an older woman living with an eccentric roommate in an old house full of bees. Her job is transcribing therapy sessions for a sex therapist. She becomes quickly infatuated with a woman who's name she doesn't know, so just refers to as Big Swiss because of her accent. Greta can't imagine ever meeting Big Swiss, but panics when she hears her voice at a dog park. She has to make a decision quickly, but will it be one that upholds ethics, or will it go down a much darker path...

SPOILERS

I am so mixed in my feelings about this book. In the center of it is a lot of really shady, and unethical behavior. A breach of confidentiality, a break of professional trust, and infidelity. And I don't know that I care if the outcomes of those things are positive if it's done in a really violating way. But that doesn't even apply here, because I didn't consider the outcome positive! So I guess I do know how I feel about this book. It grossed me out, a lot. Even the cover gives me skeeves. I just wasn't a fan.

Quirky, endearing, and charming, Greta does not require much in her life to feel fulfilled. She has a job where she doesn't have to speak to anyone, and she has a dog who keeps her company. We learn about her traumatic past and past experiences, although she doesn't seem affected on the surface.

We are introduced to an extremely unique cast of characters, each of them with distinct, oftentimes bizarre traits. The communication style throughout the story is blunt and straightforward, with no fear of inducing discomfort. Although many serious and possibly triggering issues are addressed in the plot, the tone of the story remains light and playful.

The relationship between Greta and Big Swiss is awkward and very odd. They don't display typical cues of desire or arousal. Their time spent together seems clinical and compartmentalized, with copious amounts of jealousy, possessiveness, indignity, and disregard for others. Although sexually graphic scenes are depicted, it is never done in a salacious way.

The best way I can summarize this book is to expect the unexpected.