
Antkind: A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Fred Berman
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By:
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Charlie Kaufman
About this listen
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 PostB. 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 LimitedCritic 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)
Decent
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The weirdest thing
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great narration, weird book
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The story itself is wild, meandering, incomprehensible, endless, messy, stupid, clever, tiring, energising and sad; more a surreal vehicle for (often excellent) set-pieces and gags. There is a three-month-long stop-motion-animation film that must be mined from an imperfect memory using a charismatic, whistling hypnotist (initially). This film is about two (or three...or four) vintage comedy double-acts. Or is it? I don't know. There is also Donald Trump robots, shoes, digging, clowns, doppelgangers, books-within-books, films-within-books, films-within-films-within-books, time travel, twins, tiny talking donkey puppets, ants, sex with mountains, etc, etc, etc. Does it get tiresome? Yes. Especially in the last 10 hours or so.
I recommend it.
Brilliantly performed
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Brilliant production
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The narration is superb and makes this a must listen, even if you’ve read the book.
Disregard the one star reviews, they’re written by people who like Starbucks and Christopher Nolan.
Outstanding
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I'm four hours into the book and, so far, top marks to the narrator. Thon has been superb at every moment.
Very highly recommended.
Hilarious and brilliant and profound.
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charlie kaufman
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this book is obese
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Bloated and self-indulgent
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