what we read: Swedes in Love with Crying Americans

Title: Big in Sweden

Author: Sally Franson

First, a brief summary from the publisher:

"Paulie Johansson has never put much stock in the idea of family: she has her long-term boyfriend Declan and beloved best friend Jemma, and that’s more than enough for her. Yet one night on a lark, she lets Jemma convince her to audition for Sverige och Mig, a show on Swedish television where Swedish-Americans compete to win the ultimate prize: a reunion with their Swedish relatives. Much to her shock, her drunken submission video wins her a spot on the show, and against Declan’s advice Paulie decides to go for it.

Armed with her Polaroid camera, a beat-up copy of Pippi Longstocking, and an unquenchable sense of possibility, Paulie hops on a plane to Sweden and launches into the contest with seven other Americans, all under the watchful eye of a camera crew. At first, Paulie is certain that she and her competitors have nothing in common besides their passports and views their bloodthirsty ambitions with suspicion. Yet amid the increasingly absurd challenges—rowing from Denmark to Sweden in the freezing rain, battling through obstacle courses, competing in a pickled herring eating contest—Paulie finds herself rethinking her snap judgments about her fellow countrymen, while her growing attachment to her Swedish roots increases her resolve to win the competition herself."

Insights and Opinions

One of our goals, in this long-term ever more venerable book club, has been to read more works by local authors and, where possible, invite them to join us for the discussion. Franson is both local and a friend to The Loft Literary Center (the genesis of our book club), so her new book was an easy choice for us.

Laurie Hertzl's review in the Minneapolis Star Tribune is a good match for our discussion, so rather than do a lesser job, I'll just post some of her review here:

"And then along comes a chance at “Sverige och Mig” — “Sweden and Me.” In Sweden, the show is known as “Crying Americans,” and with good reason. There is a lot of crying in this book. Paulie “bursts into tears” every few pages, which might make the reader roll their eyes, but which also makes, apparently, good TV.

The show’s producers encourage this behavior, asking questions such as, “Talk about how far you have come since you first arrived in Sweden. … If you cry, that is okay.” And “Talk about what you love about Sweden. … Consider crying as you say this.” And “Talk about your friends who have already left the show … If you cry, that is great!”

Paulie obliges. She cannot help herself. She is an emotional basket case, vulnerable and insecure while also deeply competitive and sometimes mean. (“You have too many feelings,” one of the other competitors tells her.) Her parents — a homophobic closeted gay minister and an alcoholic mother — have left her with a yearning for a traditional, loving family.

Anyone who has traveled alone to an unfamiliar place will understand the heightened state of awareness that Paulie experiences during her five weeks in Sweden. Everything there is so different, so clean, so beautiful! The people are so kind! The producers are so sexy — well, one of them is.

Franson’s writing is smooth, filled with apt metaphors and zingy one-liners. Watching a burly Swedish man cry was like “watching a bear use a fork and knife.” A meek woman’s posture was “as bent as a hanger.” A breeze swept through an open window “like a burst of laughter.”

The book shifts so quickly from one scene to the next that the reader begins to crave a bit of summary — does everything have to be shown? The narrative is so detailed it starts to feel as though the five weeks in Sweden unfurl in real time.

Franson is skilled at mixing slapstick with serious. There are pratfalls and belches, fisticuffs and stolen kisses and so much drinking. Everything is exaggerated. But at the same time, Paulie’s desire for a family connection is deep-seated and moving.

Big in Sweden is funny and mostly satisfying, certain to be big here, and a worthy successor to Franson's A Lady's Guide to Selling Out, which is being developed for Netflix by Meg Ryan."

Because we can't help ourselves, and because we love to read works we can really dig into, we did agree that we would have liked to see the characters more deeply developed. But the humor in this book, and Franson's deft hand at storytelling carried us all easily to the end.