Michelle Curie's Reviews > Big Swiss

Reading this was such a weird experience – it's an addicting page-turner, but at the same time grows more and more annoying to read. The things that define it are also those who eventually become its biggest weakness.



Big Swiss feels like both hyper-realistic and far removed from our world. It's centred around Greta, a woman in her mid-forties who transcribes a sex therapist's sessions for a living. Without wanting to, she falls in love with one of the patients, whom she refers to as Big Swiss (for she is tall and Swiss). The neurotic blonde is a gynaecologist who was brutally attacked by a man eight years ago who is about to be released from prison. While the 28 year old is living with her husband, she's never had an orgasm, but also feels different to all other people who seek therapy, not letting her trauma define her (or even be called trauma. She prefers beating). Well, when Greta meets Flavia in real life at the dog park, a wild affair begins.

Beagin's characters are deeply flawed, full of problems and loose cannons all at once. This is my first novel of hers, but I totally get why she gets compared to Ottessa Moshfegh a lot. Both authors seem to have an interest in how our experiences and pasts make weirdos out of us all. The two protagonists in here, Flavia and Greta respectively, are a handful to say the least, which makes reading about them interesting, but also kind of hard. They seem to full of – I don't want to say trauma, because neither character would appreciate it, but there's really no other way to call it. Neither wants to really get to the bottom of their problems, but instead they let all their social interactions be messed up, because their pasts clearly influence their present.

It leads to the relationship between Greta and Flavia to be frustrating. It all starts with Greta obviously not telling that she knows Big Swiss (and her darkest secrets) before getting to know her in real life, but their dynamic is mysterious enough, anyway. They don't have much in common, after all: Big Swiss is serious and restrained, while Greta is of a more unhinged and frantic nature. Their affair ends up being fuelled by equal measures of attraction and disgust, obsession and repulsion. As the plot thickens, the whole story gets more surreal and absurd and it's a type of humour that makes this entire thing fascinating and memorable, but also exhausting. I enjoyed this, but also felt a sense of relief when I was able to leave these characters behind.