If you liked
Books like Microserfs
by Douglas Coupland
Douglas Coupland's Microserfs is the Microsoft-era coming-of-age novel that turned out to be about every tech company that followed. If you stayed for Dan, Karla, and the journal-format observation of a specific 1990s working life, these five next.
The shortlist
What to read next
The Hoursby Michael Cunningham
“The Hours by Michael Cunningham review. The 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that triangulates Virginia Woolf, a 1949 LA housewife, and a contemporary NYC editor. One of the great American literary novels of its decade.”
Rubyfruit Jungleby Rita Mae Brown
“Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown 1973 review. The landmark coming-of-age novel about Molly Bolt, a smart, queer Florida kid who refuses every social script she is handed.”
Venus Envyby Rita Mae Brown
“Venus Envy by Rita Mae Brown 1993 review. A Virginia gallery owner mistakenly told she has weeks to live writes the truth to every important person in her life. Then she does not die.”
The Casanova Embraceby Warren Adler
“The Casanova Embrace by Warren Adler 1978 review. A Chilean dissident in Washington beds a string of women for political intelligence. An FBI handler tries to piece it together after his death.”
The Sand Castleby Rita Mae Brown
“The Sand Castle by Rita Mae Brown 2008 review. A multigenerational Maryland family rents a beach cottage on Chincoteague for one last summer day before the matriarch dies.”
FAQ
Common questions about Microserfs read-alikes
- These do not look like tech books. Is that right?
- Right. Microserfs is barely a tech novel. It is a novel about a small group of people coming of age inside a specific kind of work. The picks here keep the small-group, work-and-identity register without insisting on the Microsoft setting.
- Which is closest in voice?
- Rubyfruit Jungle. Brown's Molly Bolt and Coupland's Dan share the same observational confidence and willingness to be funny about serious things.
- Are any of these from the 1990s like Microserfs?
- Microserfs is 1995. The Hours is 1998. Venus Envy is 1993. The 1990s slice happens to be where most of the comic literary fiction Microserfs fans love lives.
The original