Big Swiss- A Review and Discussion of Unreliable Narrators
I recently read “Big Swiss” by Jen Beagin, and I absolutely loved it. Aside from the story itself being easily gobbled up, the characters truly stand out from the page as their own entities. No matter how similar or dissimilar I may be to the characters in that book, somehow, Beagin found a way to make them relatable on a deep, intrinsically human level.
The main character, Greta, is an odd, seemingly lost 45 year-old woman who lives with an older woman in a crumbling farm house in Hudson, NY. She is a transcriptionist for a sex and relationship therapist, who is hilariously self-named “Om”. Her story truly picks up when she becomes obsessed with one of Om’s clients that she calls Big Swiss. They randomly meet in public one day, and Greta falsely introduces herself as Rebekah to keep her identity and access to Big Swiss’s therapy sessions a secret. Their relationship unfolds from there, and the two women develop a strange and obsessive connection.
What I find extremely captivating about the book is the perspective from which we are told the story. Greta is the sort of narrator that I would classify as unreliable, as well as an honestly toxic female protagonist. Her inner dialogue is often justifying her actions according to her own gain and desires. Her view of the world is that of a middle-aged woman with unresolved trauma and a lack of a solid identity.
I think reading a story from a slightly unreliable/skewed perspective is such a cool experience. Multiple times throughout the story, Greta acts in ways that are either morally wrong or actively work against her. Her inner dialogue often points out or notices that she is in the wrong, but it is often followed with the notion that she either doesn’t care or that she is justified because of things that have happened to her in the past (childhood trauma).
When she runs into Big Swiss at the dog park and introduces herself under a false name, she immediately knows it is a poor decision. She recognizes that she is invading the other woman’s privacy by forming a personal relationship with her (without Big Swiss being aware of Greta’s position) while having access to her therapy sessions. However, she is entranced by the woman, and has been since transcribing her appointments, and Greta ultimately chooses to ignore the moral issue that her pursuit of Big Swiss creates. Greta continues to let their relationship grow into a sexual/romantic affair, and often uses the things she has learned from transcribing Big Swiss’s appointments to become closer and form a more intense connection to her. She battles with the notion that what she is doing isn’t right, but her attraction and obsession wins her over.
Greta’s internal struggles and reasonings for her behavior are, interestingly, represented outwardly in her physical life as well. She resides in a crumbling home infested with bees and an older woman as a roommate (not a romantic relationship). She lives in an endless cycle of punishing herself with crappy environments and situations. She keeps her trauma just below the surface, in perfect reach for her to grab and use as justification for anything she does on a whim. Big Swiss often comments on Greta’s home and the conditions she lives in, as well as the fact that Greta is a lost woman with no sense of purpose or identity other than her struggles in life. Big Swiss mentions in her therapy sessions that she pities Greta and the state of her life, and sometimes feels that Greta drags her down with her lost aura. Greta, of course, is not supposed to hear these thoughts, but because she is the transcriber, she does, and it forces her to think about the fact that the state of her life is not invisible, and does not only affect her. The reality check that she experiences, while one could argue it doesn’t do much for her, comes about in such a unique way. The concept of the main character learning things about how they are perceived and how they affect others is not new, but the fact that she learns it from the love interest as an omniscient third party is what really made me enjoy it. The concept that Greta is faced with her flaws both in reality and then in a space in which she cannot combat it makes for an interesting dynamic among the characters in the story.
Greta’s constant negativity toward herself and judgement of others makes her a difficult person to connect with, and her attitude isolates her from the world and true connections. While her telling of the story is assumedly accurate in terms of the facts and events, her emotional take-away from situations and the way she narrates them feels simultaneously possible as well as warped. Her descriptions of people, their mannerisms, and their actions/words feel almost like apathetic caricatures molded to connect directly with the way Greta thinks and views the world.
This narration perspective pulled me in and really made me feel like I was experiencing the events of the story through the main character’s own mind. Experiencing the story through the eyes of a damaged main character that is not actively trying to heal and Is unapologetic of their flaws (whether they should be or not) allows for a new type of dynamic to form between the reader and the character. Like I said earlier, I found myself relating to the 45 year old mess that is Greta, even though we are completely different. The bluntness of her thoughts and conversation combined with the blatant flaws made me feel as though I related to her. I think that a main character being flawed often has this effect, but the boldness of Greta and her issues made me feel connected in that she felt real. The creation of such real and raw characters is truly what made this book stick with me. I definitely plan to read more of Beagin’s work!
