swap_horiz Moon Palace Alternatives

1

Journey to the End of the Night

Louis-Ferdinand Celine’s *Journey to the End of the Night* chronicles the experiences of Bardamu, a former soldier adrif...

French Satire 20TH Century Dark

9.3 Excellent

2

The Adventures of Augie March

Saul Bellow’s *The Adventures of Augie March* chronicles a young man's unconventional journey through early 20th-century...

Classic American 20TH Century Rogue

9.1 Excellent

3

A Confederacy of Dunces

John Kennedy Toole’s *A Confederacy of Dunces* is a celebrated 20th-century American novel exploring the eccentric lives...

Classic American Comic 20TH Century

8.9 Great

4

Nights at the Circus

Angela Carter’s *Nights at the Circus* (1984) presents a darkly fantastical narrative centered on Sophie Fevvers, a cele...

20TH Century British Postmodern Circus

8.7 Great

5

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

6

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

7

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

8

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

9

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

10

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

11

Illywhacker

Illywhacker is Peter Carey's 1985 Australian novel, a Booker-shortlisted picaresque narrated by liar and confidence man...

Satire Australian 20TH Century Postmodern

8.1 Great

12

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

13

Tortilla Flat

Tortilla Flat is John Steinbeck's 1935 novel about Monterey paisanos after World War I, his first clear critical and com...

Classic American Comic 20TH Century

7.8 Good

14

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

15

The Reivers

The Reivers is William Faulkner's 1962 final novel, a lighthearted Yoknapatawpha picaresque that won the 1963 Pulitzer P...

Classic American Comic 20TH Century

7.7 Good

16

Henderson the Rain King

Henderson the Rain King is a 1959 novel by Saul Bellow about a wealthy, discontented American pig farmer whose picaresqu...

American 20TH Century Self Discovery Saul Bellow

7.7 Good

17

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

18

The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters

The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters is Robert Lewis Taylor's 1958 novel about a boy on an 1849 wagon train, winner of the 1...

Adventure American Youth 20TH Century

7.5 Good

19

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

20

My Search for Warren Harding

My Search for Warren Harding is Robert Plunket's 1983 debut novel, a comic picaresque about historian Elliot Weiner hunt...

Quest American Comic Satire

7.0 Good