I was kind of hoping to get a review up before most of the major trade publications, but I'm only halfway through an ARC of Antkind and Kirkus has beaten me to it. BASTARDS. The good news is, they love the book.
Always centrifugal screenwriter Kaufman delivers a terrific debut novel that makes Gravity’s Rainbow read like a Dr. Seuss story.
You know you’re in for strange times when a young fast-food cashier cites an anecdote about Jean Cocteau (“They once asked him what he would take from a burning house”) while offhandedly observing that the vehicle you’re driving is on fire.
[...]
It’s a splendid, spectacular mess, much like Kaufman’s Being John Malkovich, commanding 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. (Source)
Full review at the link.
I'm at the 300-page mark (of 700) and can confirm that, so far, it really is worthy of the Pynchon comparison. Charlie's not a screenwriter. He's a writer, period. If the next 400 pages live up to the first 300, I'd be totally on board should he ever feel like scaling back the movie-making and publishing a few more books instead. (If they do not, well, FORGET I SAID ANYTHING.)