The Circle - Dave Eggers

[goodreads]

Title: The Circle
Author: Dave Eggers
Genre: Dystopian
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 504
Date read: October, 2015

When Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world's most powerful internet company, she feels she's been given the opportunity of a lifetime. The Circle, run out of a sprawling California campus, links users' personal emails, social media, banking, and purchasing with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of civility and transparency.

As Mae tours the open-plan office spaces, the towering glass dining facilities, the cozy dorms for those who spend nights at work, she is thrilled with the company's modernity and activity. There are parties that last through the night, there are famous musicians playing on the lawn, there are athletic activities and clubs and brunches, and even an aquarium of rare fish retrieved from the Marianas Trench by the CEO. Mae can't believe her luck, her great fortune to work for the most influential company in the world... even as life beyond the campus grows distant, even as a strange encounter with a colleague leaves her shaken, even as her role at the Circle becomes increasingly public.

What begins as the captivating story of one woman's ambition and idealism soon becomes a heart-racing novel of suspense, raising questions about memory, history, privacy, democracy, and the limits of human knowledge.


Fascinating, thought-provoking and chilling book. I can too easily see the reality of this book come true.

It's hard to review this book without getting into a debate about the pros and cons of social media, and I actually find it rather fitting and ironic at the same time that I am sharing this review on social media. It's the kind of book that will leave you questioning how much we share online, or - if you're already questioning - will make you want to shut down your FB profile for good.

Interestingly enough, there's no real plot to speak of. The book is definitely character-driven and atmosphere-driven. That doesn't always work for me, but here it really did, and though a bit slow to start, from about the halfway mark I had serious problems putting it down.