Rémy Reads: Big Swiss

Greta, in her mid-forties, aimless, and obviously shaped negatively by her relationship with her mother, is currently the transcriber to a legit(?) sex therapist who's professional name is Ohm -side eye- . Greta is privy to the torrid secrets of many in Hudson, New York, but she has grown enamored with a brusk women she calls Big Swiss who has never experienced an organism in her life even though she is married and is an OBGYN. Desperately, Greta craves each new recording of Ohm's sessions with Big Swiss, but soon reaches a point of no return when she finally meets her in the flesh.

Big Swiss is a deceptive dive into the nuance of desire, desperation, and self-destruction. As we follow Greta's enmeshment with this woman she knows through dubious means, we see how everyone in Greta's life including herself remain on self-destructive hamster wheels. If you are well-adjusted, you will soon get annoyed. It was slow to start, but eventually became a car crash that was difficult to look away from. The multiple narrators for the audiobook do add color to the reading experience, but not everyone was compelling or convincing. I had a realization that certain people sounded younger than their characters and I want to hope that that was perhaps intentional (no spoilers). However, it took me out of it occasionally. Also, it was sometimes difficult to distinguish present time, from past, from internal monologue, from drug-fueled delusions. The conclusion leaves some to be desired, but -that's the way life goes-. (specifically read/sung as Janet Jackson sings That's the Way Love Goes)