Books › The Broom of the System › Books like it
If you loved
Books like The Broom of the System
A dizzying, hilarious plunge into a world where language dictates reality and everyone is talking but no one is communicating. These 12 books are the closest matches in mood, pace and themes, with what each one shares with The Broom of the System.
- zany
- surreal
- intellectually dizzying
- frenetic
- 01
Infinite Jest
David Foster Wallace · 1996
A sprawling, tragicomic labyrinth of footnotes and hyper-articulate despair that asks what it means to be entertained to death.
- 02
The Pale King
David Foster Wallace
A sprawling, hyper-detailed plunge into the agonizing boredom of bureaucracy that somehow emerges as a profound meditation on human attention.
- 03
The mezzanine
Nicholson Baker · 1988
A hyper-focused, footnote-laden love letter to the overlooked mechanics of everyday life that turns a simple escalator ride into a philosophical odyssey.
- 04
The Brooklyn Follies
Paul Auster · 2005
A warm, meandering love letter to human imperfection and the unexpected second acts found on the sidewalks of Brooklyn.
- 05
All families are psychotic
Douglas Coupland · 2001
A sun-drenched, chaotic plunge into the hilarious and disastrous depths of family dysfunction, anchored by an unexpected tenderness.
- 06
Then we came to the end
Joshua Ferris
A brilliantly deadpan, hive-mind chronicle of the absurdities, anxieties, and unexpected intimacies of modern office life.
- 07
The gum thief
Douglas Coupland · 2006
A wry, fluorescent-lit exploration of retail drudgery and the unexpected connections forged between aisles of office supplies.
- 08
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
Karen Joy Fowler
A witty, conversational unraveling of a deeply unconventional childhood that leaves you questioning the boundaries of family and humanity.
- 09
Straight Man
Richard Russo · 2002
A hilarious, big-hearted romp through the petty grievances of academia and the messy realities of a midlife crisis.
- 10
Severance
Ling Ma
A deadpan, eerily calm apocalypse where the end of the world looks a lot like another day at the office.
- 11
Motherless Brooklyn
Jonathan Lethem
A hyper-verbal, darkly comic spin on the classic noir, filtered through a mind that cannot stop playing with language.
- 12
Where'd You Go, Bernadette
Maria Semple
A sharp, epistolary romp through the absurdities of elite parenting and the messy chaos of a stalled creative mind.
