22 of the Funniest Novels Since ‘Catch-22’
This is one of the 759 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.
About this list
New York Times, 22 Books
Three critics from the New York Times put together a list of 22 of the funniest novels written in English since Joseph Heller’s “Catch-22” (1961).
This list was originally published in 2024 and was added to this site about 2 years ago.
| Rank | Book | Authors | Year | Country | Language | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7784 | The Wig | Charles Wright | 1966 | American | English | |
| 241 | Portnoy's Complaint | Philip Roth | 1969 | American | English | |
| 1702 | Oreo | Fran Ross | 1974 | American | English | |
| 700 | Tales of the City | Armistead Maupin | 1978 | American | English | |
| 6582 | Mrs. Caliban | Rachel Ingalls | 1982 | American | English | |
| 1741 | The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 | Sue Townsend | 1982 | British | English | |
| 4628 | Heartburn | Nora Ephron | 1983 | American | English | |
| 750 | Money | Martin Amis | 1984 | British | English | |
| 2618 | The Mezzanine | Nicholson Baker | 1988 | American | English | |
| 1325 | A Far Cry From Kensington | Muriel Spark | 1988 | British | English | |
| 570 | American Psycho | Bret Easton Ellis | 1991 | American | English | |
| 641 | Bridget Jones's Diary | Helen Fielding | 1996 | British | English | |
| 3178 | The Quick And The Dead | Joy Williams | 2000 | American | English | |
| 7062 | Then We Came To The End | Joshua Ferris | 2007 | American | English | |
| 396 | The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao | Junot Diaz | 2007 | Dominican | English | |
| 10539 | I Am Not Sidney Poitier | Percival Everett | 2009 | American | English | |
| 9234 | Lightning Rods | Helen DeWitt | 2011 | American | English | |
| 10817 | Pym | Mat Johnson | 2011 | American | English | |
| 837 | The Sellout | Paul Beatty | 2015 | American | English | |
| 11311 | Private Citizens | Tony Tulathimutte | 2016 | American | English | |
| 2224 | My Year of Rest and Relaxation | Ottessa Moshfegh | 2018 | American | English | |
| 11919 | Lake Of Urine | Guillermo Stitch | 2020 | British | English |