Picaresque novels or films with female protagonists
February 21, 2020 11:05 AM   Subscribe

I've really enjoyed Erica Jong's Fear of Flying and the movie Y Tu Mama Tambien. What are some other picaresque novels or films with female protagonists?

Specifically, I'd love it if they had:
- Some kind of road trip element
- An insouciant sense of transgression by the characters
- Female protagonists who are ideally the picaresque character or one of them

Also:
- No need for a heavy sexual component, even though those two examples happen to
- Ok if they have an unhappy ending or moralizing at some point in the story
- Any era, any language, popular or obscure

Thank you!
posted by 3491again to Media & Arts (25 answers total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
Tess of the Road is like what if Lydia Bennet got a road trip and a small dragon after her disgrace (fantasy). It might work for you.
posted by dinty_moore at 11:10 AM on February 21, 2020


Thelma and Louise
Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
Buffalo Girls by Larry McMurtry (the novel)
posted by sallybrown at 11:13 AM on February 21, 2020 [2 favorites]


The Fifth Season by Jemison is driven (no spoilers) by the main character's journey, a mother in search of her child.
posted by SPrintF at 11:39 AM on February 21, 2020


Martha Wells' Wheel of the Infinite. Wet muddy road trip (with thespians!), main character is willing to piss off anyone including divinities, realizes she has to go home and fix some stuff.
posted by clew at 11:52 AM on February 21, 2020


Memoirs of the Life of Henriette-Sylvie de Moliere: A Novel by Madame de Villedieu (Marie-Catherine Desjardins) is interesting for both its era--1670s--and its protofeminist content ("Madame, it was not men themselves I hated, but rather their mania for attaching themselves to me and then unfailingly entangling me in some troublesome adventure").
posted by cpound at 11:55 AM on February 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


Oh gosh, Lieutenant Nun. Definitively picaresque. Not even fiction.
posted by clew at 12:14 PM on February 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


Lois McMaster Bujold, Paladin of Souls Traveling, transgression, a very awesome female lead.
posted by PussKillian at 12:22 PM on February 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


Moll Flanders (possibly the OG in English literature)

I really would not call The Fifth Season's protagonist "picaresque."
posted by praemunire at 12:23 PM on February 21, 2020 [3 favorites]


Oh, the young women in Zombieland, of all things, may qualify for you.
posted by praemunire at 12:25 PM on February 21, 2020 [2 favorites]


Trouble by Kate Christensen opens with a woman suddenly realizing her marriage is over, and a few pages in she’s decamped for Mexico City with her old friend, a pop star hiding out from a scandal. There are adventures of many kinds. This descriptions sounds ridiculous, but it’s very much in the style of Fear of Flying. Here’s a only slightly spoilery review.
posted by minervous at 12:28 PM on February 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


IIRC, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues pretty much checks your boxes.
posted by DrAstroZoom at 12:54 PM on February 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


Wendy and Lucy is perhaps grimmer than you want, but otherwise I think really checks your boxes.

Little Miss Sunshine?
posted by ChuraChura at 1:00 PM on February 21, 2020


IIRC, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues pretty much checks your boxes.

it does, but robbins is such a, idk, creepy writer of women. once it hits you, you can never really unsee it, and you can definitely get sucked into the whole "spunky rule-breaking adventure-having female protag" thing he does in every book, before having that realization.
posted by poffin boffin at 1:06 PM on February 21, 2020 [4 favorites]


Travels with my Aunt by Graham Greene.
posted by HandfulOfDust at 1:31 PM on February 21, 2020 [2 favorites]


Maybe The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy?
posted by zoetrope at 1:49 PM on February 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


Like Water for Chocolate
posted by Dolley at 2:27 PM on February 21, 2020


You might enjoy the film "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day". Not a road trip, but there are distinct scenes that give it an episodic feel and it definitely has women surviving by their wits. Also funny and surprisingly kind hearted.
posted by Athanassiel at 2:42 PM on February 21, 2020 [3 favorites]


Flaming Iguanas by Erica Lopez! Subtitled "An Illustrated All-Girl Road Novel Thing."
posted by prewar lemonade at 3:42 PM on February 21, 2020


Nevada by Imogen Binnie
posted by needs more cowbell at 6:18 PM on February 21, 2020


Very different from these more literary books, but many of the elements you want are in Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett, from Wikipedia:
It takes its name from the anti-Catholic 16th century tract by John Knox, the full title of which is The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women.
posted by 445supermag at 6:33 PM on February 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


Jong's fanny
posted by brujita at 9:26 PM on February 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


Birds of Prey is tragically lacking the road-trip element, but has the "insouciant sense of transgression by the characters" in spades.
posted by praemunire at 11:05 PM on February 21, 2020


You might enjoy Self-Control, 1811, Mary Brunton. The Wiki link has spoilers but I'm not sure that matters in this case.
posted by paduasoy at 11:11 PM on February 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


If you haven't read the rest of that series of Jong's, do so. It doesn't just end with Fear of Flying. I think How to Save Your Own Life is my favorite, and Parachutes & Kisses is also good.
posted by limeonaire at 7:49 AM on February 22, 2020


Elif Batuman's The Idiot checks a lot of these boxes.
posted by runtina at 12:31 PM on February 23, 2020


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