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The Circle by Dave Eggers is a sort of 1984 of the digital age. But whereas Orwell’s book begins in the midst of it all, The Circle starts on the verge of it and we watch in horror as everything slides so easily towards what could end up being totalitarianism.
The Circle is the world’s most powerful internet company. Run by the Three Wise Men, we have Eamon, the public face of the company, easy-going, disarmingly friendly; Stenton is the business mind, the one who figures out how to monetize everything; and Ty, the tech genius on which the company was founded. That tech is TruYou, a sort of “One Ring” for the internet. With a TruYou account you can pay bills and make purchases, use all of your social media accounts, pretty much do anything and everything you need to do on the internet. And because you can’t make a fake account and no one can hide behind screen names any longer, the internet has shaped up to be a nicer place.
Everyone wants to work for the Circle on their sprawling California campus, a perfectly engineered microcosm of order and beauty that integrates work and play and, health and wellness. After a while working for the Circle people start to have a hard time navigating the world “out there” and so more and more of the 11,000 employees want to move into one of the dorm rooms on the Circle Campus.
Into this world comes our narrator, Mae Holland. She had big dreams after college but found herself in a boring job working for the utilities company in her home town. She reaches out to her friend and former college roommate, Annie, who is part of the inner circle of 40 at the Circle, the ones who hear the pitches of inventors and start-ups, the ones who make the decisions and the plans. Annie’s job is to fly around the world, smoothing the ruffled feathers of governments and eliminating road bumps thrown up by regulators. Annie gets Mae a job at the Circle working in Customer Experience, a fancy name for customer service.
Mae is so grateful and wants to do a good job so she doesn’t disappoint or embarrass Annie. She throws herself into her work. Mae is young and innocent and doesn’t see that she is being indoctrinated into a cult. It isn’t long before her whole life belongs to the Circle and all of her old friends and her parents are estranged.
One of the creepy things about those working at the Circle is that very few of them are older than thirty. Sucked in when they are as young and innocent as Mae, believing that technology can save the world, they endorse things like placing trackers in the ankle bones of children so no child can ever be abducted again. Of course these tracking chips then start to be used for tracking educational attainment and health and all sorts of other things. Privacy doesn’t matter if it stops crime or solves health issues.
And soon, in the name of transparency, politicians start wearing cameras around their necks that record 24/7 everything they do and say and broadcasts it to the internet. If a politician doesn’t want to be transparent she is assumed to be hiding something. And it all just keeps getting worse and worse as the Circle works to “close the circle.” What closing the circle means no one really even knows, at least not people like Mae, but they go along with it anyway, the circle must be closed.
What it amounts to, of course, is the Circle running the world. There are even some 1984– type doublespeak slogans:
Sharing is Caring
Secrets are Lies
Privacy is Theft
Mae is given a number of opportunities to see the truth of the Circle but Mae loves Big Brother, er, the Circle, and she wants to make everyone else love it too.
The Circle was a page-turner, the horror of watching Mae get sucked into the hivemind is delicious. It is not a perfect book, however. Eggers doesn’t seem to trust that his readers will understand several very obvious metaphors so he explains them to us. He also doesn’t trust that we will understand that the Circle is aiming for world domination and why that is bad so he explains that to us too. Mae’s father has multiple sclerosis and Eggers gets some of the information about treatment incorrect which was pretty annoying because it could have easily been made correct.
Most of the technology in the book doesn’t exist, or, if it does, it does not exist in such a refined state (facial recognition for instance is still unreliable but in the book, as on TV and in movies it works fast and perfect every time). I don’t have an argument against the technology and how (currently) unrealistic it is. Eggers uses technology to make a point: technology will not create a utopian society and we really need to stop and think about what we are doing and how we use tech before it’s too late. There is a certain technology company we all know whose motto is “do no evil.” Eggers shows just how much evil can be done in the name of doing good.
Sounds like a compelling novel, and a bit creepy. lol
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njmckay, it was both compelling and creepy, you got that right!
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If it hadn’t been for your wonderful review I don’t think I would have ever given a thought to this book! I’ve tried Eggers books before and have just not liked them at all. This though sounds like a book we can all relate to in some way. Very interesting!
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Iliana, thanks! The only other Eggers book I have read is his memoir and I wasn’t all that impressed by it, but I’d heard so many good things about this book that I thought I’d give it a try. It was really good and definitely something we can all relate to.
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Sounds like a most timely book. And brings out some controversial issues. I’ve a feeling that WikiLeaks founder Julain Assange just might subscribe to those slogans. We nowadays have to deal with both sides of the coin.
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Arti, very timely. I have a feeling you are right about Assange and the slogans from the book. I suspect there might be a good umber of people who would subscribe to those slogans and that in itself is scary. I suspect we will be dealing with many of the issues Eggers raises for a very long time.
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What a terrific review of a truly great book. I have one question for you: Did you clue in, before it was revealed, that Kalden was really _____? I sure didn’t. That was a shocker, like in a good way.
A real page-turner, for sure. I’m glad you are not critical of the exaggerated nature of the book — the sort of hypering of “(currently) unrealistic” technology within the story. As you say, Eggers uses it to make a point. And I think, in this sense, it is not only a great read, but also a relevant one.
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Cipriano, thanks! About the second or third time they met I suspected who Kalden was and the further along I got the more sure I became. Eggers does good at keeping it unwraps for a long while though!
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This sonds good! Probably a little more accessible to me than the Cusanus Game you wrote about earlier. I want to read some ‘dystopian’ fiction this year–will add it to my list, but I should probably get to Margaret Atwood’s books first. Even if it is a little heavy handed it sounds as though it rings eerily true!
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Danielle, it was good and very accessible, no science at all ๐ The book stops just short of being Dystopian, but it is clear that if it kept going that it would definitely turn very grim. The book is very much a warning flare. Oh yes, do read Atwood’s books, you should read those first ๐
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I have seen wilding differing opinions about this book so it’s good to get a review of it from someone I can trust. The whole concept sounds horrendous to me even though my broadband is running so slowly at the moment that I would welcome someone who could wave a magic wand and speed it up. It sounds the sort of book that would have steam coming out of my ears, so I think, having now got a real idea of what it’s about that I will pass.
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Alex, if I had a magic wand I’d wave it over your broadband connection. It’s a good read and scary because it is all too real in so many ways. If your ears will steam then it is best to skip it. No sense in scaring the the Bears ๐
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This sounds so horrible…and plausible. I’ve been seeing this book all over (my nook keeps the cover popping up for one thing), but I’ve not really had such a good understanding of what it’s about until I read your post. It reminds me of Stepford Wives a bit, and communism a lot, in that what sounds good in theory (for some) is really evil at heart. As a person who lived in a world where the extent of technology consisted of a black and white television, with five channels, where I was the remote for my father, I can see how too much of technology is not a good thing.
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Bellezza, we had a color TV when I grew up but my sister and I were still the remote! I think there is an interesting cultural split between those of us who grew up pre-Google and pre-Facebook. We tend to see too much tech as invasive and have more concern for privacy. Sadly, the book does seem all too plausible.
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I think this sounds amazing! Thanks for the review! I am going to go and look for this one right now.
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Sheila, you bet! I hope you enjoy the book!
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I’m glad to hear you say it’s not perfect. I want to read this badly, and these last couple weeks I’ve been feeling that I’m really missing out on something not reading it. Your sober review tells me I should set aside a weekend for it, but it can a wait a few more weeks.
I wonder if there are any reviews out there by Google employees?
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Isabella, no, it’s not perfect but the flaws don’t wreck it, at least they didn’t for me. It would be interesting to hear what people who are in deep at Google and Facebook think of the book.
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My book group is reading this in a couple of months, and I’ve been… unenthusiastic about the prospect, mostly because what I’ve heard focused on the unrealistic aspects of it and made it sound like Eggers is on an anti-tech tear. Thinking of it more metaphorically and focusing on the larger point might make it go down easier. At any rate, it should make for good conversation!
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Teresa, if you focus too much on the details of the tech then you definitely won’t like it. I don;t think Eggers is anti-tech at all, only using the story to sound a warning about where things could go and why that would be bad. I will be looking forward to hearing what you think of it!
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