Big Swiss by Jen Beagin
(Format used for this read: audiobook)
Greta lives with her friend Sabine in an ancient Dutch farmhouse in Hudson, New York. The house is unrenovated, uninsulated, and full of bees. Greta spends her days transcribing therapy sessions for a sex coach who calls himself Om. She becomes infatuated with his newest client, a repressed married woman she affectionately refers to as Big Swiss.
One day, Greta recognizes Big Swiss’s voice in town and they quickly become enmeshed. While Big Swiss is unaware Greta has eavesdropped on her most intimate exchanges, Greta has never been more herself with anyone. Her attraction to Big Swiss overrides her guilt, and she’ll do anything to sustain the relationship…
This book was as weird and off beat as the cover art suggests.
I usually enjoy quirky books that go against the flow…but naw.
Not this time.
Another book where I really did not like the main character.
She is pretty messed up and troubled, but that wasn’t what was off putting for me.
Honestly, sometimes those things can be what draws me to charcters and what keeps my interest….I guess because we are ALL messed up in some way and reading that other people are too (albeit fictional people) is some weird type of reassurance that we aren’t some anomaly of human nature.
And I don’t always have to LIKE the main charcter to enjoy a book (“Yellowface” is a perfect example of this…FABULOUS read)
But Greta was just too unlikeable for me…she was a liar and sneaky AF.
I didn’t really like ANY of the characters in this story….they were very well written and well developed, but I just wasn’t vibing with any of it.
This story had a lot of layers…it was about desire, healing, moving forward, relationships, and mental and emotional health.
Nothing against the author…I find her to be good at her craft and quite talented…same for the audio narrators (there are multiple which was cool) but I just did NOT have a good time with this read.
I can’t explain it but I had this feeling of “grey” the entire time I was reading. Maybe that was intentional considering some of the topics of the book….but I just wasn’t into it.
Wasn’t in the mood.
There are plenty of intimate scenes (there is an affair taking place after all)…but they felt kinda clinical in their descriptions most of the time. I think that was the point but IDK…fell flat to me.
Not my jam, this one.