Reviews with content warning for Eating disorder - Big Swiss

Reviews tagging 'Eating disorder'

lauracollins096's review

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dark emotional funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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tesslw's review against another edition

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3.0

Firstly, thank you so much to Faber for an e-ARC of this via NetGalley.

Big Swiss is one of the most curious and unique books I’ve had the pleasure of reading in a long old time, and I enjoyed it a lot, for the most part - though I do have some serious hesitations which I’ll expand on later.

In Big Swiss, whilst following Greta, a transcriptionist for a new-wave sex therapist in New York, who calls himself Om, we listen as Greta transcribes hour after hour of Om’s client sessions, and as she comes to know the subjects within them, if only by their voices (and interpersonal relationship struggles…). However, when Big Swiss (nicknamed so by Greta due to her height and Swiss accent) begins sessions with Om to address her sexual repression (she has never before had an orgasm) and floundering marriage, Greta becomes quickly infatuated with her. Well, with her voice, her life - just the very idea of her…. and then she recognises her voice at the dog park one day.

After introducing herself via fake name and job history, Greta befriends Big Swiss and soon falls into a strange and feverish affair with her.

We all know by now that I love a messy, queer novel - and it was really refreshing to find a book that features an older LGBT protaganist and sapphic romance (Greta is 45) , and there were some interesting deep dives into the prevalence of trauma (particularly childhood) in our adult lives and the extent to which it shapes our personalities, decision making and the relationships we seek out for ourselves.

However, I must also mention that I would agree with much of the online criticism I’ve seen around characters making problematic comments and racially charged microaggressions on multiple occasions throughout this book. I hope that the intention behind these remarks was to reinforce Greta’s flaws and dislikable traits, for me this wasn’t made clear enough to not to feel uncomfortable in a way that goes beyond satirical disdain / secondhand cringing on behalf of a character, and slipping into gratuitously insensitive comments that seem largely unchallenged. It feels very easy to me to make a character unlikable in a plethora of ways that don’t involve poking fun at marginalised communities - and in this instance it didn’t feel like they were integral to any plot line or character development arc.

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3mi1y's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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katbalts's review against another edition

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funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Big Swiss is exactly everything I look for in a book. It's about strange people doing strange things. By the end of it I was left thinking, what on earth happened here? And its absolutely perfect.

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gummifrog's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful reflective relaxing slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book was like a warm hug, a sweet, slow, loving, hilarious, and realistic memoir of trauma, repression, healing, and relationships. The tone is witty and irreverent, with some truly laugh-out-loud moments and delightfully clever prose. But it's not just a comedy, either - the cover and synopsis has a shock value, but the most surprising thing to me was an empathetic beating heart at the center of this book. I loved Big Swiss and I'm glad I read it.

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studydniowka's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Świetna dekonstrukcja współczesnej instytucji psychoterapii i jej wpływu na funkcjonowanie młodych (szczególnie) ludzi. Niesamowicie zabawna i niesamowicie smutna refleksja nad kobiecą homoseksualnością i systemowi przymusowej heteroseksualności, który trzyma w swoich ryzach kobiety, nie pozwalając im na otwarcie się na swoje homoseksualne pragnienia i jak w konsekwencji, dzieje się to dość późno w życiu kobiety, po wielu latach w hetero związkach. Bardzo, bardzo dobra książka.

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janellejx's review against another edition

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Throughout the book there is a lot of “casual” racism and a few microaggressions that are never addressed but at around the 82% mark of this book a VERY racist comment is made that made me decide to DNF. One character, Sabine, says to the main character Greta that her face looks like she’s been beaten up and her eyes look they’ve been swollen shut (she had been crying a lot). Greta’s response was, “you should’ve seen me out there. I turned Italian. I turned Chinese.” Like ummmm what the actual f???? No thank you. Also the author is very glib and the characters often joke about sensitive topics like suicide and eating disorders and it’s super inappropriate and uncomfortable.

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