If you liked
Books like James
by Percival Everett
James is what happens when Percival Everett, who has been writing some of the best American novels for forty years, finally gets handed Huck Finn and given permission to fix it. Jim becomes James, the narrative voice goes from Twain's register to Everett's, and the result is a book that won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer in the same season. If you finished it and needed another book that was doing equivalent work, these are the closest matches in our catalog.
The shortlist
What to read next
Belovedby Toni Morrison
“Beloved by Toni Morrison 1987 review. Sethe, a former slave living in Reconstruction-era Ohio, is haunted by the daughter she killed to save from slavery. Pulitzer Prize 1988 and one of the canonical American novels of the late twentieth century.”
Song of Solomonby Toni Morrison
“Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison 1977 review. Macon "Milkman" Dead III, born into a comfortable Black family in 1930s Michigan, travels south to discover his ancestral history. Morrison's third novel and one of her two unquestioned masterpieces alongside Beloved.”
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Storeby James McBride
“The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride 2023 review. A 1972 skeleton found at the bottom of a Pottstown, Pennsylvania well sends the novel back to a 1930s neighborhood where Black, Jewish, and immigrant families lived alongside each other. The most important American novel of 2023.”
No Country for Old Menby Cormac McCarthy
“No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy 2005 review. A Texas welder finds a satchel of cash at a drug-deal massacre, and the man who comes for it does not stop. Late McCarthy in his cleanest thriller mode.”
The Handmaid's Taleby Margaret Atwood
“The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood 1985 review. In the near-future Republic of Gilead, women have been stripped of their rights, and the handmaid Offred remembers the world before. The most-cited dystopian novel of the late twentieth century.”
Normal Peopleby Sally Rooney
“Normal People by Sally Rooney 2018 review. Connell and Marianne grow up in the same small Sligo town, attend Trinity College Dublin together, and orbit each other across four years of intermittent intimacy. The literary-fiction novel that defined the Rooney moment.”
FAQ
Common questions about James read-alikes
- What is the closest match for James?
- Beloved. Both books take what historical fiction is supposed to do politely and refuse to be polite about it. Toni Morrison did in the 1980s what Everett is doing in the 2020s, and the lineage between the two is direct.
- I want more Percival Everett.
- Erasure is the obvious next read (it became the film American Fiction). The Trees is short and brutal. Dr. No is the funniest of his recent books. None are reviewed here yet, but every library has Erasure right now.
- I want another book that retells a classic.
- Song of Solomon does not retell a classic but plays in the same mythic register. The Handmaid's Tale retells the politics of America through a near-future lens. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store retells the small-town American novel by giving it back to the people the small-town American novel usually ignored.
- I want something with the same prose density.
- No Country for Old Men is the high-craft American novel that James reads like a response to. Normal People is the European cousin. Both are short and dense in different ways.
The original