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Antkind: A Novel

By: Charlie Kaufman
Narrated by: Fred Berman
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Publisher's Summary

The bold and boundlessly original debut novel from the Oscar®-winning screenwriter of Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Synecdoche, New York.

‘Riotously funny’ New York Times ‘Just as loopy and clever as his movies’ Washington Post

B. Rosenberger Rosenberg, neurotic and underappreciated film critic (failed academic, filmmaker, paramour, shoe salesman who sleeps in a sock drawer), stumbles upon a hitherto unseen film by an enigmatic outsider – a three-month-long stop-motion masterpiece that took its reclusive auteur ninety years to complete. Convinced that the film will change his career trajectory and rock the world of cinema to its core, that it might possibly be the greatest movie ever made, B. knows that it is his mission to show it to the rest of humanity. The only problem: the film is destroyed, leaving him the sole witness to its inadvertently ephemeral genius.

All that’s left is a single frame from which B. must somehow attempt to recall the work of art that just might be the last great hope of civilization. Thus begins a mind-boggling journey through the hilarious nightmarescape of a psyche as lushly Kafkaesque as it is atrophied by the relentless spew of Twitter. Desperate to impose order on an increasingly nonsensical existence, trapped in a self-imposed prison of aspirational victimhood and degeneratively inclusive language, B. scrambles to re-create the lost masterwork while attempting to keep pace with an ever-fracturing culture of “likes” and arbitrary denunciations that are simultaneously his bête noire and his raison d’être.

A searing indictment of the modern world, Antkind is a richly layered meditation on art, time, memory, identity, comedy, and the very nature of existence itself – the grain of truth at the heart of every joke.

©2020 Charlie Kaufman (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic Reviews

"Outstanding. Combining his films’ most urgent themes and recurring concerns in a format that supports the digressions and logic-loops he’s so famous for, Charlie Kaufman may have out-Kaufmaned himself." (The i)

"A very strong debut novel, a long, anguished spill of a book, full of buried furies and nervy philosophical expeditions, constantly tossing off sparks of humour and imagination...at once surreal and highly readable." (LA Times)

What listeners say about Antkind: A Novel

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Stunning work of extraordinary genius

Powerful, moving, beautiful, hilarious, full of pathos and made me feel less alone in the universe - also the narrator was really excellent - top marks. Would highly HIGHLY recommend this book. Just don’t get so engrossed that you, like I did, fall down an open manhole into an open sewer.

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Pure Kaufman unleashed

This is everything I’ve wanted from a Kaufman novel. Absurd, cruel, personal, funny, serendipitous. He breaks the fourth wall with such self-referential regularity it becomes a wormhole into his most bitter and bemused self.

If this sounds like too much, skip it. It tested my patience but it was truly a joy.

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One of the best books I’ve ever read/heard

What a trip. It’s funny, honest, vulnerable, relevant to our times, meta, dreamlike and clever. I love Eternal Sunshine and Adaptation, and whilst this book is nothing like those stories, it has the same ridiculousness and surprise. I loved every minute.

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Very Good

I loved the premise, characters, and ideas in this novel but feel like it would have been better if it was about 300 pages shorter. Still, it was a pleasure to spend sometime in Kaufman's rich imagination, and the performance by the narrator was excellent.

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Simply Magnificent

Infinite Jest now has a strange companion on a shelf in my mind that it previously occupied alone.

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Amazing

Unlike anything else I've read/listened to. This Charleton Coughman guy sure is amazing, despite what he might say about himself.

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terrible, indulgent

can't believe I listened to this whole book. it's terrible, needs a good edit, 2/3 could be removed

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Kaufman, man! Get out if your own way!

There is a great 5 hour novel here, its a pity this is a 25 hour collectionn of prolix from a once talented writer who has read too much David Foster Wallace and tried to emulate the best writer that ever lived. Like seriously what was the last decent thing thing this yutz produced? To be avoided like mile high toddlers (there Charlie theres some Foster Wallace for you).

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500 Pages Too Long

Even intellectualised self indulgence, is still self indulgence. 700 words explaining the sub text of the book not implying it.

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