thelarch 's review for:

Antkind by Charlie Kaufman
3.0
challenging dark funny mysterious reflective slow-paced

Do you like Charlie Kaufman? Then you might like this book. Or, you might not.

Think of everything you find in a Charlie Kaufman film and you will find it in Antkind. But like, way, way more of it. Charlie Kaufman set free from the constraints of film run times. Charlie Kaufman running away with first person like it's a brand new lover. Charlie Kaufman at his FULLEST: full of self-loathing, tongue in cheek humor, metafictional references, and pretentiousness (in the best and worst ways). Do you like the word pulchritudinous? No? Me either. But you will read it at least a bajillion times in Antkind.

Don't get me wrong, this book made me guffaw like I'd never guffawed before. The writing can be absolutely incandescent. And I, for one, love Charlie Kaufman's films. But there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. At about the 50% mark my enthusiasm began to sag, and I wondered whether some of his satirizing wasn't quite satire but some real darkness coming through.

Still, it was worth trying.