We’ll Always Have Brooklyn: 13 Books to Get You Through Your Post-“Girls” Funk

Before she was a literary legend, Mary Gaitskill was a young woman writing about her life, resulting in this remarkable collection of stories about dislocation, rebellion, longing, desire, and disenchantment. Set on the Lower East Side and peppered with a diverse, fascinating cast of characters ordinary and not, it’s a must-read for any Dunham disciple.

Coming of age in New York City is a tale as old as time, but somehow Danler makes it all new in SWEETBITTER. The novel centers around Tess, a twentysomething who lands a job working at a well-known downtown restaurant and receives an education like no other, filled with chaos and champagne, dive bars and dining rooms, adrenaline and ambition.

Before Hannah Horvath was the self-proclaimed voice of her generation, Emily Gould was the owner of the phrase, working at the infamous website Gawker as a writer and editor. In this collection of essays, she tells the real truth about becoming an adult in New York City—failing at pet parenthood, dating the wrong men, and finding a new life (even when your old one is just a couple of subway stops away).

Meadow and Carrie have everything in common—except their views on sex, power, moviemaking, and morality. Their friendship is complicated, but their devotion to each other trumps their wildly different approaches to filmmaking and to life, much like the oft-contentious relationships between the characters in Dunham’s “Girls.” Throughout the novel, the women grapple with the question of how to be good: a good lover, a good friend, a good mother, a good artist.

Best friends Evie, Krista, and Willow are just trying to make it through their midtwenties in New York. By all accounts, they’re average—online dating, paying rent, trying to climb the corporate ladder. That is, until they come across Pretty, a magic tincture that makes them gorgeous. As doors open, however, they soon discover a dark side to the life of a modern-day Cinderella and must choose what they’re willing to sacrifice to stand out.

Sarah, the only child of a wealthy couple, works at a charity and is planning her dream wedding. Lauren, single and working in publishing, has been her best friend for years. Though they care for each other, they are equal parts envious of and horrified by the life the other leads. RICH AND PRETTY perfectly captures the feeling of knowing a friend forever, and one day turning around to wonder: Is it a real connection or just force of habit that keeps friends together?

At 26, Cat Marnell was an associate beauty editor at one of the top magazines in America—and hiding a secret life of partying and prescription drug abuse. In this unflinchingly honest, darkly humorous, and deeply troubling memoir, she takes the reader through a roller-coaster ride of visits to uptown doctors’ offices, downtown nightclubs, suburban rehabs, and the gilded offices of the fashion world, highlighting the chaos and seduction of the glamorous life.

Five years after their college graduation, five friends are just as close as ever while navigating their ever-shifting relationships with each other and the city they live in. But when a devastating revelation blows their realities apart, they are forced to reexamine their lives, aspirations, and paths and do the unthinkable—grow up. If you loved the idea of New York as a character in “Girls,” this one is for you.

To our knowledge, A FORTUNATE AGE has never been connected to “Girls” as source material, but aside from Dunham’s own life story, it’s the closest you’ll get. Four Oberlin graduates move to Brooklyn during the late 1990s and experience the ups and downs of adulthood against a changing economic and political world.

If “Girls” has taught us anything, it’s that sometimes life isn’t made for television. There are mundane moments, ugly fights, and things that happen to us that we don’t realize matter until much further down the road. In THE FOLDED CLOCK, Heidi Julavits keeps a diary as a fortysomething wife, mother, and writer, documenting moments large and small. The result is an intelligent, interesting look into the daily life of a modern woman.

Though the girls always take center stage on Dunham’s show, the men in their lives play just as important a role. Adelle Waldman’s funny and at times frustrating novel about Nate Piven is perfect for those looking to get into the head of the Adams and Desis of the real world. As Nate moves through professional and personal successes and failures, the reader is given fantastic insight into the contemporary male psyche.

“Girls’” main mission was to create an honest portrait of the contemporary woman, and Roxane Gay’s blockbuster collection of essays is the perfect literary equivalent. In BAD FEMINIST she explores the complexities of being a modern woman and asks the big questions, like whether it’s possible to be a feminist and still love “The Bachelor,” or how it’s possible that women of color are still massively underrepresented in popular culture when they play such a significant role in its evolution.

Once you’re done binge-watching the series, revisit the book from the creator herself. In the same honest and original way Hannah Horvath sees the world, so does Dunham, whose stories and essays on falling in love, feeling alone, being healthy (or not), and having the courage to tell your story perfectly capture the spirit of the show.