swap_horiz End Zone Alternatives

1

Stoner

John Williams’ *Stoner* chronicles the life of Edwin “Stoner” Grant, a Midwestern student at Midwestern State Teachers C...

1960S Literary Fiction Tragic Professorial

9.4 Excellent

2

Kokoro

Kokoro is a significant literary work by Natsume Soseki set in Japan’s Meiji Era. The novel centers on the evolving rela...

Literary Fiction 1910S Meiji Era Japanese University

9.1 Excellent

3

Doctor Faustus

Doctor Faustus is Thomas Mann’s sprawling 1947 novel exploring themes of ambition and morality through the story of Adri...

Intellectual Literary Fiction 1940S German Music School

8.9 Great

4

Fifth Business

Fifth Business explores themes of memory and consequence through the recollections of Rearrangement Phillips, a retired...

1970S Literary Fiction Professorial Robertson Davies

8.8 Great

5

The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath's 1963 semi-autobiographical novel follows a young woman's mental breakdown, first published under the pseu...

Coming Of Age 1960S Literary Fiction Us College

8.5 Great

6

Franny and Zooey

J.D. Salinger's 1961 novel, comprising two linked stories first published in The New Yorker, depicts Franny Glass's spir...

1960S Literary Fiction Student Life Us College

8.4 Great

7

The History Man

1975 novel by Malcolm Bradbury following radical sociologist Howard Kirk at fictional University of Watermouth, later ad...

1970S Literary Fiction Academic Satire UK University

8.3 Great

8

World of Wonders

Robertson Davies's 1975 novel concludes the Deptford trilogy through the life story of Magnus Eisengrim, a celebrated Ca...

Theatrical 1970S Literary Fiction Robertson Davies

8.1 Great

9

The Manticore

Robertson Davies's 1972 Deptford trilogy novel, structured as a Jungian analysis, won the Governor General's Award for E...

Canadian 1970S Literary Fiction Robertson Davies

8.0 Great

10

The Art of Fielding

2011 debut novel by Chad Harbach set at fictional Westish College, Wisconsin, in which a shortstop's sudden throwing err...

Baseball Literary Fiction 2010S Student Life

7.8 Good

11

Indignation

Philip Roth's 2008 novel narrated by a Jewish student at an Ohio college in 1951 whose principled defiance of conformity...

2000S Literary Fiction Student Life Philip Roth

7.6 Good

12

The Professor of Desire

Philip Roth's 1977 novel tracing English professor David Kepesh's erotic and intellectual development from college throu...

1970S Literary Fiction Philip Roth Professorial

7.5 Good

13

A Word Child

Iris Murdoch's 1975 novel follows an Oxford-educated man, expelled from academia after a fatal scandal, now working as a...

Intellectual 1970S Literary Fiction Oxford Graduate

7.5 Good

14

The Women's Room

Marilyn French's 1977 novel follows a woman from suburban marriage through Harvard graduate school and became a landmark...

Feminism 1970S Literary Fiction Harvard Grad School

7.4 Good

15

The Marriage Plot

2011 novel by Jeffrey Eugenides set partly at Brown University in the early 1980s, following three literature graduates...

Coming Of Age Literary Fiction 2010S Student Life

7.3 Good

16

The Diviners

Margaret Laurence's 1974 novel, the fifth and final book in her Manawaka sequence, following writer Morag Gunn as she re...

1970S Feminist Literary Fiction Canadian University

7.3 Good

17

The Female Persuasion

Meg Wolitzer's 2018 novel about a college student at a small liberal-arts school who is transformed by a mentorship with...

Feminism Literary Fiction 2010S Us College

7.2 Good

18

A Good School

Richard Yates's 1978 novel set at a fictional New England boarding school during World War II draws on his own wartime a...

Coming Of Age 1970S Literary Fiction Boarding School

7.1 Good

19

The Pregnant Widow

Martin Amis's 2010 novel set among students summering in an Italian villa in 1970, examining the sexual revolution's psy...

Coming Of Age 1970S Literary Fiction Student Life

6.8 Fair

20

I Am Charlotte Simmons

2004 novel by Tom Wolfe following a scholarship student from rural North Carolina navigating the social hierarchies of t...

Coming Of Age 2000S Literary Fiction Student Life

6.4 Fair