Big Swiss Takes a Big Swing

And it works

Hey friends,

I’m thinking about reviewing some books in these pages, though I haven’t written a book review since the seventh grade. I’m not interested in pitching reviews to major outlets because what I notice about books probably isn’t interesting to the general book-buying public. But it’s probably interesting to you all, who care about how a book was written and sold, who bought it and why, why it works or doesn’t. I’ve been in my book club for over twenty years and my friends will attest that every. single. meeting. I say something like I can see why this book sold or I bet they pitched it like this. I also talk about whether I liked it or not, if I would recommend it to other people or not, but in the end, I’m not so concerned about liking a book. I want to know what the author did and how they did it.

Last year a wrote a newsletter about the Big Painting and then later about taking the Big Swing. Both were a call to authors to try more, to avoid the “quiet” book,¹ to do something daring and hopefully interesting. This sounds great in theory, but I know it’s not that clear in practice. So here’s an example of a Big Swing that I think worked! It just also happens to have “big” in the title. Complete coincidence, though.

I don’t know how BIG SWISS by Jen Beagin (Scribner, 2023)² got on my radar. I’m sure I saw a review or my friends were posting about it, because I’m definitely the target market for this book. And something about it intrigued me instantly. The cover is great and compelling.

I don’t like books that are weird for weird’s sake. I only need a handful of books like The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in my life. I probably read the back cover copy of BIG SWISS (I don’t typically read reviews of books before I read the actual book) and was like ok, let’s go. On Publisher’s Marketplace, this book is described as being “about a woman living in Hudson, New York who transcribes sex therapy sessions and falls in love with one the patients.” Short pitch, BIG idea. This isn’t your campus novel or your cheating spouse revenge story or your quiet literary novel about feelings and parenthood.³ I don’t know why this author chose to write this book and I’m not particularly interested in that part. Maybe she transcribed therapy sessions as a side gig and thought it was ripe for a novel! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Either way, she was right.

There’s a lot of weird shit in this book. The main character, Greta (probably spoilers ahead) lives in a rundown, eighteenth century house in Hudson with little heat, wonky plumbing, and an active bee hive in the kitchen. The therapist she works for is often described wearing questionably work-appropriate clothes (a sarong, a mesh shirt) and utilizes a large gong in his sessions. The eponymous Big Swiss, a beautiful, brusque gynecologist named Flavia, describes her graphic and harrowing beating in her therapy sessions, which Greta transcribes. When Greta later realizes she’s talking to her at the dog park, she lies and says her name is Rebekah and embarks on an affair. Greta knows this is crossing a line, but she does it anyway, and the reader believes Greta is just the kind of person who would do this.

BIG SWISS has enough interesting set-up in the front to turn your head, and then rich, intriguing, surprising, funny, sexy, human characters to keep you invested.

I would describe this book as “character driven,” mostly because I would tell you how the characters made me feel before I told you what they did. This may or may not be a good litmus test for other character vs plot driven books, but that’s ok. But still, the characters in this book do stuff. Things happen! Exciting things! Surprising things! Things that made me say no way out loud as I was reading! The world around her is revealed to the reader as Greta is able to see it, as she grows and is found out and is forced to reckon with reality. This subtle widening of the aperture is so smart and so emotionally engaging. And you don’t even realize the author is doing it until the end.

But what really works is that Beagin takes this sexy, eye-catching, oh really? pitch and makes her characters do real emotional work with it. It’s not a lark. It’s not a gag. It’s not there for the first twenty pages and then brushed aside. There are stakes to Greta’s actions and we see them a mile away and still don’t mind when the inevitable happens. Greta’s backstory and growth is really surprising (to me) and affecting in the end. The way Beagin skewers and then illuminates therapy feels so real. Yes, it all boils down to who hurt you? in the end, but that’s ok! That’s life! That’s what makes us us! Who knew raising donkeys could be so therapeutic??? All of this will make sense if you read the book.

I finished it a few days ago and I miss these characters. I really want to know if Greta’s ok. I was so invested in these characters and/because they are so invested in the fucked up shit they’re doing. The author isn’t messing with the reader or the characters. It’s a very emotionally honest book, imho. The author takes it seriously, even in it’s ridiculousness, so the reader does, too.

When you take a big swing, you can’t be afraid to follow through. If you’re going to give your character a big job or challenge or goal or plot, you have to see it through to the end, even if it would “never happen in real life.” Books aren’t real life!!! Emotionally, though, you have to have characters who react as if it was real life. If your character isn’t devastated when they lose the big, goofy thing, then why should your reader care? What is it but a big, goofy, inconsequential thing? If your big, shiny plot fizzles out in the end, what’s going keep the reader plowing ahead?

I really enjoyed BIG SWISS. I would read Jen Beagin’s other books for sure, and I would recommend this book to readers and writers who like off-kilter but emotionally honest literary fiction. If I saw a query like this in the slush pile, the plot/set up would turn my head, but it would be the authenticity of the characters and the quality of the prose that would keep me reading. I don’t think this applies only to literary fiction, either. If you’re going to take a big genre swing, you gotta follow through there, too. Make those goofy characters want something. Want something. Make the reader want it, too.

So, how’d I do? Should I write more of these?

XOXOXOX,

Kate

1. No shade to “quiet” books. They can just be hard to sell.

2. Sold in January, 2020 by Amanda “Binky” Urban at ICM to Kara Watson at Scribner, an imprint of Simon and Schuster. Yes, I look up the editor an agent of every book I read.

3. No shade to these books either! I just see them a lot in the query pile.