Antkind

A Novel

De: Charlie Kaufman

Narrado por: Fred Berman

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

LONGLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE • “A dyspeptic satire that owes much to Kurt Vonnegut and Thomas Pynchon . . . propelled by Kaufman’s deep imagination, considerable writing ability and bull’s-eye wit."—The Washington Post

“An astonishing creation . . . riotously funny . . . an exceptionally good [book].”—The New York Times Book Review • “Kaufman is a master of language . . . a sight to behold.”—NPR

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR AND MEN’S HEALTH

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 made by an enigmatic outsider—a film he’s convinced will change his career trajectory and rock the world of cinema to its core. His hands on what is possibly the greatest movie ever made—a three-month-long stop-motion masterpiece that took its reclusive auteur ninety years to complete—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 of this work of art is a single frame from which B. must somehow attempt to recall the film 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.

Amazingly and epically Kaufman

Invest several hours of your life in this mind bending poetic/comic romp, and you will be amply rewarded.

Chaos

The narrator was excellent. Funny but too long, like listening to 24hrs of WoodyAllen rant

Strange Story, As You Might Expect

I have a feeling I need to listen again, because the story becomes a whirlwind. Not unpleasantly, in my opinion.

An extremely flawed main character goes on a pretty fantastic journey. His transformation isn't a neat, clean, easy or certain process, but it's full of wonders, delightful and horrible.

Adorably weird and SO funny

Also, the actor reading it does such an awesome job. I'm reading it now for the third time. I love how much fun Kaufman seems to have had writing this book, it's liberating to read, and it even gets better every time.

Funniest audiobook I’ve ever listened to

Fans of Kaufman will not be disappointed. He lets loose in similar fashion to the movies he has directed, but the novel-form contains less roadblocks.