swap_horiz Middlesex Alternatives

1

The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

Michael Chabon’s *The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay* chronicles the intertwined lives of Joe and Amos Kavalier, childh...

American 21ST Century Episodic Historical

8.9 Great

2

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Junot Díaz’s *The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao* explores the complex experiences of an isolated Dominican-American m...

American Satire 21ST Century Diaspora

8.7 Great

3

Portnoy's Complaint

Philip Roth’s *Portnoy’s Complaint* offers a candid, confessional narrative following Alexander Portnoy’s exploration of...

American Satire 20TH Century Confessional

8.5 Great

4

The Sot-Weed Factor

The Sot-Weed Factor is John Barth's 1960 picaresque satire of colonial Maryland and the poet Ebenezer Cooke, marking his...

American Satire 20TH Century Historical

8.4 Great

5

The Eyes of the Overworld

The Eyes of the Overworld is Jack Vance's 1966 Dying Earth fix-up novel, a picaresque fantasy centered on the roguish Cu...

Fantasy Quest American Satire

8.3 Great

6

The Confidence-Man

The Confidence-Man is Herman Melville's 1857 satirical final novel, set on a Mississippi steamboat bound for New Orleans...

American 19TH Century Satire River

8.2 Great

7

The Dog of the South

The Dog of the South is Charles Portis's 1979 comic road novel, following Ray Midge from Arkansas toward Belize in pursu...

American Comic Satire 20TH Century

8.2 Great

8

The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man

James Weldon Johnson’s *The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man* chronicles the life of a man navigating racial prejudice...

American 20TH Century Identity Race

8.2 Great

9

Solomon Gursky Was Here

Solomon Gursky Was Here is Mordecai Richler's 1989 Canadian novel, tracing a fictional dynasty through the Franklin Expe...

Canadian Satire 20TH Century Family Saga

8.1 Great

10

Two Serious Ladies

Two Serious Ladies is Jane Bowles's 1943 modernist novel, her only novel, following Christina Goering and Frieda Copperf...

American Satire 20TH Century Surreal

8.0 Great

11

Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl

Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl is Andrea Lawlor's 2017 debut, a Whiting Award-winning queer picaresque about a 199...

American 21ST Century Picaresque Queer

7.8 Good

12

Rubyfruit Jungle

Rubyfruit Jungle is Rita Mae Brown's 1973 debut novel, a coming-of-age account of Molly Bolt notable for its open portra...

American Satire 20TH Century Queer

7.8 Good

13

Baudolino

Baudolino is Umberto Eco's 2000 Italian historical novel, following a 12th-century fabulist linked to Frederick Barbaros...

Italian Satire Medieval 21ST Century

7.8 Good

14

The Slaughterman's Daughter

The Slaughterman's Daughter is Yaniv Iczkovits's 2015 Hebrew historical adventure, translated into English in 2020 and w...

Israeli Satire 21ST Century Historical

7.7 Good

15

A Cool Million

A Cool Million is Nathanael West's 1934 American novel, a bleak parody of Horatio Alger success stories centered on Lemu...

American Satire 20TH Century Parody

7.5 Good

16

Quichotte

Quichotte is Salman Rushdie's 2019 Don Quixote-inspired metafiction, shortlisted for the Booker Prize and set on a road...

Satire 21ST Century British Road

7.3 Good

17

Modern Chivalry

Modern Chivalry is Hugh Henry Brackenridge's 1792 American satire about Captain Farrago and Teague O'Regan, a landmark o...

18TH Century American Satire Frontier

7.2 Good

18

Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me

Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me is Richard Farina's 1966 comic campus picaresque, a counterculture novel publis...

American Satire 20TH Century Counterculture

7.2 Good

19

The Last Witchfinder

The Last Witchfinder is James Morrow's 2006 historical novel about Jennet, who uses Enlightenment science to challenge E...

Quest American Satire 21ST Century

7.2 Good

20

Pym

Pym is Mat Johnson's 2011 satirical novel, using Edgar Allan Poe's only novel as a springboard for a comic Antarctic stu...

Quest American Satire 21ST Century

7.1 Good