Big Swiss by Jen Beagin. No Advance Reader Copy was included, and no affiliate links were used. Read my full disclosure policy here.
Paula’s Kindle lying on a fluffy grey blanket beside a cup of coffee. The e-reader is open on the title page of Big Swiss by Jen Beagin.
Big Swiss by Jen Beagin is such a strange novel! It is absurd, surreal, and shot through with dark, dark humour. For chunks of the book, I had no idea what the hell was happening! I kept having to scroll back to see what I had missed, only to realise that I hadn't missed anything because the thing the characters were reacting to happened off the page.
But what about the plot? Greta rents a room in a friend's crumbling-down house. She works from home as a transcriptionist for a sex and relationship coach named Om. As she listens to the sessions, Greta is drawn to one of Om's clients, who she nicknames Big Swiss because, well, she is tall and from Switzerland! Big Swiss doesn't know who Greta is. Yet, when they bump into each other at the dog park, Greta panics, and their relationship doesn't exactly get off to an honest start.
What follows is a whirlwind of a novel that is difficult to explain. Greta and Big Swiss are opposites in many ways, but they cannot keep away from each other.
Big Swiss is a novel that questions how we – as a society – view both big T and little t trauma. To be honest, I am unsure how I feel about the story. I didn't dislike it, but I am not entirely convinced I liked it either!
Big Swiss by Jen Beagin is published by Faber & Faber and is available in hardback, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats.
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