Of all Lively's novels, City of the Mind is closest in kind to Moon Tiger (1987) and Cleopatra's Sister, especially the latter. In all three novels Lively uses unconventional narrative structures and raises radical questions about the nature of reality and the nature of time; and in City of the Mind and Cleopatra's Sister she intersperses the main narrative with narratives taking place on a different ontological plane, thereby continually undermining the realism of the main narrative. However, City of the Mind can also be categorized with the other novels that feature male protagonists (Treasures of Time, According to Mark, and Cleopatra's Sister), for Matthew shares many traits with them.