Antkind

Reviews

“There is something about this book’s extravagantly appointed lunacy that makes the lunacy of real life feel (briefly) more manageable.”—The Wall Street Journal

“Outrageously funny . . . 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 . . .  exceptionally good.”—The New York Times Book Review

“A sight to behold . . . Kaufman is a master of language.”—NPR

"Kaufman successfully blends the brain-wrapping narrative complexity of a Reddit wormhole with the laugh-a-page aplomb of Kurt Vonnegut.”—Entertainment Weekly

“Antkind is Kaufman pushing himself to every formal and social limit, no holds barred, bleak and devastating, yet marvelous.”—Los Angeles Review of Books

“This is a whopper of a book, bursting with the driest of humor, the strangest of scenarios, and the most brilliant of observations. It is wholly original, maddening, and marvelous.”—Susan Orlean, author of The Library Book

"Antkind is unbridled Kaufman energy and wit coming up against the limits of the imagination itself: discursive, subversive, and genuinely funny."—Joshua Ferris, author of Then We Came to the End
 
“Each page is so stuffed with invention, audacity, and hilarity, it feels like an act of defiance. Antkind is a fever dream you don’t want to be shaken awake from, a thrill ride that veers down stranger and stranger alleys until you find yourself in a reality so kaleidoscopic you will question your own sanity.”—Maria Semple, author of Where’d You Go, Bernadette

“Magnificent, genius, enraging, mysterious, joyous, terrifying, and, above all, hilarious! Within its pages, Antkind might contain the universe.”—Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Less

“A tribute to the absurdity of story and ego and obsession that manages to criticize all of this as fiercely as it embraces it all, Antkind is as funny and brilliant and utterly idiosyncratic as you could ever hope. I couldn’t put it down, which is saying a lot, because holy shit, is it heavy.”—Mat Johnson, author of Pym and Loving Day

“[It commands] attention from start to finish for its ingenuity and narrative dazzle. Film, speculative fiction, and outright eccentricity collide in a wonderfully inventive yarn—and a masterwork of postmodern storytelling.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Pynchonesque . . . Kaufman’s debut brims with screwball satire and provocative reflections on how art shapes people’s perception of the world.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“This novel is magnificently imaginative, bringing to mind Beckett, Pynchon, and A. R. Moxon’s more recent The Revisionaries (2019). With this surprisingly breezy read, given its length, Kaufman proves to be a masterful novelist, delivering a tragic, farcical, and fascinating exploration of how memory defines our lives.”—Booklist Expand reviews