Books › The Commitments › Books like it
If you loved
Books like The Commitments
A loud, profane, and fiercely energetic love letter to soul music and working-class dreams. These 12 books are the closest matches in mood, pace and themes, with what each one shares with The Commitments.
- chaotic
- loud
- scrappy
- vibrant
- 01
The Barrytown Trilogy
Roddy Doyle
A boisterous, profane, and deeply affectionate plunge into the chaotic heart of a working-class Dublin family.
- 02
The Snapper
Roddy Doyle
A warm and witty exploration of family chaos and unexpected motherhood set against the lively backdrop of Dublin.
- 03
Trainspotting
Irvine Welsh
A frantic, dialect-heavy plunge into the euphoric highs and devastating lows of addiction and urban decay.
- 04
High Fidelity
Nick Hornby · 2000
A sharp, hilarious, and painfully relatable dive into the mind of a pop-culture obsessive terrified of growing up.
- 05
Circle of Friends
Maeve Binchy
A warm, immersive portrait of the fierce loyalties and inevitable heartbreaks of growing up and growing apart.
- 06
Normal People
Sally Rooney
An achingly intimate portrait of two people who cannot stay away from each other, yet constantly fail to speak their minds.
- 07
Conversations With Friends
Sally Rooney
A sharp, hyper-observant dive into the messy, overlapping boundaries of friendship, lust, and intellectual posturing.
- 08
Bridget Jones's Diary
Helen Fielding
A hilarious, deeply relatable plunge into the chaotic mind of a woman trying to hold her life together while counting every calorie and cigarette.
- 09
Porno
Irvine Welsh
A grimy, high-octane reunion of aging degenerates scheming their way through the sleazy underbelly of Edinburgh.
- 10
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
James Joyce
A deeply internal, language-obsessed journey of shedding the suffocating weights of religion and nation to forge a new self.
- 11
The butcher boy
Pat McCabe · 1994
A breathless, darkly hilarious, and deeply disturbing plunge into the fractured mind of a neglected boy.
- 12
Dubliners
James Joyce
A quiet, devastating portrait of ordinary lives trapped by circumstance and illuminated by sudden, fleeting moments of clarity.
