Screenplays Reading Order
| Title | Published | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| Being John Malkovich | 2000 | Buy |
| Human Nature | 2002 | Buy |
| Adaptation. | 2002 | Buy |
| Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind | 2003 | Buy |
| Synecdoche, New York | 2008 | Buy |
| Scenes of Anomalisa | 2016 | Buy |
Standalone Novels
| Title | Published | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| Antkind | 2020 | Buy |
Charlie Kaufman spent four and a half years working in the circulation department of the Star Tribune in Minneapolis before a spec script got him an agent in 1991. He moved to Los Angeles and wrote for television comedies nobody remembers, including The Trouble with Larry and Ned and Stacey, before Spike Jonze directed his screenplay for Being John Malkovich in 1999.
That film established what became a recognizable pattern: characters who are deeply unhappy, stories that fold in on themselves, and a refusal to give audiences an easy resolution. His collaboration with Michel Gondry produced Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which won Kaufman the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. He went on to write and direct Synecdoche, New York and the stop-motion film Anomalisa. Roger Ebert called Synecdoche the best film of the 2000s decade.
His debut novel, Antkind, arrived in 2020. At 720 pages, it reads like a Kaufman screenplay without a camera. He has described himself as shy and reserved, which tracks with his tendency to put fictionalized versions of himself into his own work. Adaptation credits a fictional twin brother named Donald Kaufman as co-writer. Donald was nominated for an Oscar alongside Charlie.