Greta called the woman Dičke the Swiss because she is tall and comes from Switzerland. True, such an image is only Greta’s guess – she has never seen Dicke the Swiss. All he might hear was her voice, on audio recordings of therapy sessions that he transcribed for a sex and relationship coach. One day, Greta unexpectedly meets Dička, a Swiss woman – she recognizes her voice. The Swiss bitch has no idea what her secrets Greta knows. Despite the signed confidentiality agreement and guilt, Greta will do everything to ensure that this meeting is not the last.
What lies behind the twists and turns of the intriguing plot? And why do those who have already read “My Switzerland” call it one of the most creative books of recent times? J. Beagin, the author of the novel, tells regarding it.
– In the book “My Swiss”, you open the door of not just anyone, but the office of a sex therapist. The walls of this office hear more than one spicy secret or frustration of the inhabitants of a small town. How did the idea for the novel come regarding?
– I started studying at the university when I turned thirty, and at the same time I worked as a transcriber. So I would listen to lectures during the day, and at night I would put on headphones and transcribe audio recordings for several hours. I didn’t have a study at home, so I worked locked in an empty closet, it was usually so hot there that I wore only my underwear.
One of my clients was a therapist working in an oncology clinic. All of her patients had some form of cancer. I was very annoyed because she would interrupt patients quite often to talk regarding her upcoming book. Not only that, but she would constantly ask patients abstract questions that they mightn’t answer, like, “Tell me in one sentence, what is love?” She was the worst therapist I’ve ever come across, so I transcribed her recordings and I screamed and cursed a lot.
I knew right away that there would be violence in the novel – I wrote the assault scene first.
When I started writing My Switzerland fifteen years later and thought regarding what kind of work the main character Greta might do from home, the first thing that came to mind was transcription. I imagined the character in the novel sitting in her underwear, listening to audio through headphones, pressing keys and cursing loudly. I knew right away that there would be violence in the novel – I wrote the assault scene first. I wrote it as a monologue before I had fully developed the character of the therapist Om.
I was overtly portraying violence, so I wanted to lighten the scene, otherwise it would have bogged down the reader. I thought how absurd it would be if the therapist interrupted you when you started talking regarding trauma and started talking regarding yourself. What if he still dresses like he’s on his way to an orgy and practices Kundalini yoga?
For those who don’t know, I will tell you that Kundalini – not some kind of pasta, but divine feminine energy, like a snake curled up in your base chakra.
What would it look like for a therapist to encourage patients to awaken the Kundalini by chanting some strange word? What if he still had a gong, made dirty jokes regarding it, and ended every session with a sound bath? This is how Ohm brings much-needed levity to a novel that deals with many complex and disturbing themes.
– “My Swiss Girl” is not a typical romance novel. Some may find it uncomfortable, maybe even vulgar, but it contains a lot of important topics for today’s people – trauma and its consequences, passion and relationships. What do you think is the most important theme in this novel?
– “My Swiss” is primarily a story regarding love, but it can be said that it is also a novel regarding therapy. In the United States, therapists have replaced priests and clergy, and people speak of their therapists with great respect. During the sessions, people reveal their most shameful thoughts, transgressions, and even real crimes, but instead of kneeling, repenting and begging for forgiveness, they are praised for their honesty and courage.
People today seem to open up most honestly in therapy sessions and online. It is not uncommon for us to maintain long-term relationships with our therapists, sometimes even closer than our husbands or wives.
Almost everyone I know is in therapy. Me too. It’s normal, but sometimes I feel like people get too much support and sympathy and unfortunately some adults become children, assholes, or both.
You know, those people who go to a museum and start saying, “Well, I might draw that too!” But you didn’t, did you? Some of these bitches are now in therapy and think the same thing regarding their therapists: “Oh, I might be a therapist too, I’m so empathetic.” Then they go out to dinner with their friends and start demanding that they talk regarding their needs in public, without any shame . I do it myself – a real nightmare.
my swiss
Jen Beagin
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Today it would be strange to write a novel and not to mention therapy because it is so prevalent in our culture. When you open instagram, it looks like everyone is traumatized, very vulnerable, and also appears to be dehydrated because the trauma doesn’t leave their bodies at all. After all, injuries allegedly deprive our bodies of vital vitamins and minerals. No, drinking more water is not enough – stop laughing! You will need to take off your clothes, lie down on the snow, curl up in child’s pose, and repeat “I love myself” many times.
It would be strange to write a novel today and not mention therapy because it is so prevalent in our culture.
I decided to write regarding sex therapy because during it the characters might express their most secret thoughts, be scared, naughty, sometimes vulgar. They might remain themselves, or, in other words, peculiar and flawed. And I needed the characters to have flaws, because even in real life I find the funniest people to be the ones who make bad decisions.
– One of the characters in the book, Greta, transcribes the sessions of the sex therapist Om and his clients. There is no lack of conversation extracts in the novel – you do not retell, but give the reader the opportunity to directly experience what happens in the therapist’s office. Why?
– I decided to include transcriptions in the story, because it was very interesting to write them – there is no need for any descriptions of the environment, quotation marks or the narrator’s words inserted into the dialogues. Together, the sessions look very realistic. I think that this style is also very interesting and catchy for the reader. Such pure and uninterrupted dialogue.
– There are not many descriptions in the book, and not only people are active, but also animals: dogs, bees, donkeys. One house also has an impressive history. Why do you choose this way of speaking?
– I almost always base my writing on real events in my life. When I started writing “My Switzerland”, I actually lived in such a house. It looked exactly as I describe it in the novel: very old, very cold, full of bees and windows with broken glass. The bees died out shortly following I moved in, just like in the book.
I lived in that house for three years with my best friend (the owner of the house) and two pygmy donkeys. We both had no money, we mightn’t pay for heating, so we heated ourselves with firewood, and the donkeys often spent time with us inside. It was difficult to live there in the winter, but I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything. I learned a lot and collected great material for creativity!
– Perhaps it is not appropriate to call “My Swiss” a psychological novel, but there are plenty of psychological themes and problems here. What inspired you to create characters wounded by difficult life experiences?
– I wrote “My Switzerland” during the pandemic, so it seemed completely natural to talk regarding psychological pain. In addition, I myself was wounded by painful life experiences and felt the need to tell regarding my experiences. I’ve had to deal with abuse, addiction, divorce, infidelity, suicide up close, and I’ve also worked a lot of stupid jobs. Putting all of this into the novel gave me the opportunity to rewrite my story and rethink some of the absurd decisions of the past.
I wrote “My Switzerland” during the pandemic, so it seemed completely natural to talk regarding psychological pain.
I won’t hide it, it’s not easy to talk regarding traumatic experiences, but I usually wait until some time has passed. In graduate school we were told, “Write when you’re clear, not to find out.” I wait until I can look at a certain experience from a bit of that distance, or until I’ve started to digest the pain it caused.
– Readers will also find Lithuania in the book. What do you know regarding the country where your book is published?
– I mentioned Lithuania in the novel completely by accident! I just liked the way the word sounded in a sentence, and when I write, the sound is very important to me.
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2024-07-09 22:54:27
