Big Swiss

A Novel

By: Jen Beagin

Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman, Carlotta Brentan, Stephen Graybill, Joy Osmanski, Matt Pittenger

Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

NATIONAL BESTSELLER AND CULT FAVORITE

Named a Best Book of the Year by the New Yorker, Time, NPR, Vogue, Elle, Cosmopolitan, Huffington Post, NBC News, Lit Hub, theSkimm, Condé Nast Traveler, Town & Country, and more!

“One of the funniest books of the last few years” (Los Angeles Times) about a sex therapist’s transcriptionist and her affair with one of the patients.

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…

“A fantastic, weird-as-hell, super funny novel” (Bustle), Big Swiss is both a love story and a deft examination of infidelity, mental health, sexual stereotypes, and more—from an amazingly talented, singular voice in contemporary fiction.

©2023 Jen Beagin. All rights reserved. (P)2023 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

One of my favourites

This and The Guncle are comedic gold. Excellent narration and story with the narration perhaps my favorite ever!

Fascinating characters

Original story with fascinating characters I didn’t know where the story was going sometimes funny sometimes sad sometimes sexual but the characters were fascinating

Trauma dumping

I really enjoyed it! The characters seemed true to themselves and the performance was great by the reader! I love that everyone has there own mental hurdle they need to get over. It was trauma dump after trauma dump. But if felt true to Greta to over share in that way. It also felt like a lot of Greta’s long monologs and rants she go on are super poetic in her description making it feel like she writing a letter instead of talking. really enjoyed it felt it did drag a little with the descriptions but loved the humor LOLed quite a lot!

All over the place and going nowhere

Performers did a great job. Story-wise I was excited for the premise here, it sounded like a rom-com setup but darker and more twisted. Post-listen, if you asked me what this book was about, I couldn’t tell you. Felt like the author changed their mind once or twice about what they were writing while they were writing it. An author can make up for this with great prose that is rewarding regardless of the story…this one doesn’t.

Wow

It’s rare I read/listen to a book that strikes me on such a deep level. Big Swiss was enthralling from start to finish. It never felt like it was trying too hard and made me laugh aloud many times. As a woman in my 30s with a chaotic childhood, lackluster impulse control, and half a decade sunk into therapy sessions with a therapist I know wants to throttle me on occasion, I related too much to this story. I just added a new favorites book as well as favorite author to my list.

A comedy with complex flavors

This novel works beautifully as an audiobook. It's very conversational and feels a bit like a play. The narrators give an impressive comedic performance, a deceptively easy delivery that I'm sure many would have botched.

I chose it, because I wanted to listen to something fun and light, and in most respects, 'Big Swiss' met my expectations. The narrators sound like they're just breezing through the pages and having a good time. However, what initially appears to be a straightforward "ha-ha" kind of story, takes several unexpected turns and blossoms into a surprisingly well-developed romance between two women, or at the very least, a heartfelt sexual adventure. The story loses a bit of its momentum at the very end, but in general, it’s very original and mostly funny.

Amidst all the humor, there's a traumatic episode, a violent attack. It is dealt with the appropriate gravity... before returning to more hilarious comedy. It took me a moment to change gears, to adjust and readjust, For a moment, I felt confused, even betrayed: this wasn't what I'd signed up for... But once I assimilated it, I realized that it was brilliantly written, as it lends the characters an added layer of depth and authenticity. Part of me feels that I shouldn't be giving away this much information, but I mention it in case listeners who've gone through similar trauma may not necessarily respond to it so well. So I'm just giving a heads up.

I've read news that 'Big Swiss' is being adapted into a TV series, but my recommendation would be to experience the audiobook before anything else.

Best book in ages

So fun, so enjoyable, and so well written. This book got me back into reading.

Dark, loving, cigarette in the tub kinda book

A soul captured in a book. Beagin isn’t afraid to go there and I’ll go there with her from now on - wherever that is. It’s dark, witty, and the smoky mirror of truths we are afraid to say even to the closest of friends. Initially, fairly swept into the ending and felt almost abandoned by it. A few days of processing in, and the ending suits Greta’a story in the most fitting way. Thank you for Big Swiss, I feel like I’ve known her all along!

Great characters

Gritty, funny, excellent read. Can’t wait to read more from this author! Reads like a Chuck Pahlanik book.

Unique

Lovely prose, the performance of the voice actors was stellar and I found the use of therapy sessions as a tool to get inside the characters heads interesting. Not that it hasn’t be done before but I dunno. It was well done. And the descriptions of her house and the bees and her life in general just painted such a vivid image for me of who she was