The Circle by Dave Eggers
★★★

Mae Holland has finally got the career she’s been waiting for. Her closest friend Annie has helped her to get a customer service job at The Circle, the most powerful internet company in the world. Mae is immediately drawn in by the amazing campus with all sorts of social activities for the people at The Circle to go to and “zing” about. As Mae gets deeper into the company though, more and more problems seem to develop. Her relationship with her parents becomes estranged and her former-ex-now-close-family-friend no longer wants anything to do with her. She also begins seeing this mysterious stranger named Kalden everywhere even though according to her Circle searches, no one by his name even works at the company. Finally, Mae is roped into being “transparent”, a program that has her wearing a camera around her neck so anywhere in the world someone can tune in and see what she’s doing. This program is also pushed on political figures and other ordinary citizens as The Circle tries to get more and more people to forgo a private life and become “transparent”, allowing others to watch. As the Circle becomes more and more powerful, Mae begins to wonder if everyone warning her about The Circle may be right….

 

I thought this book was really clever. It doesn’t take the reader long to see that the Circle is a take on both Google and Facebook. Google especially is known to have an amazing work campus and other amazing things that normal civilian jobs are missing (a slide to go downstairs, are you kidding?). The book also presents some very intriguing arguments. For example, with the ranking system and the way the social media is used, it’s easy to see why so many in the book become dependent on it. What seems exhausting or superficial at first appears to be a strong comfort system later on with thousands, if not millions of users able to get in touch with Mae in seconds to help comfort her or make her feel heard. How many of us use social media to vent and feel comforted by others? There is also an amazing bit in the book where one of the creators of the Circle pushes his reason in believing everyone should use cameras to record every second of their lives. He believes that in allowing someone become “transparent”. By recording a kayaking trip or climbing Mt Everest, we are allowing others to learn what those experiences are like even if they are not able to do them. He believes it is a shame, if not a crime, to hide information or to deprive others from accessing information. I thought that was really interesting. Should we view information as such? Something it is our duty to share with others? And where is the line between withholding and over sharing?

 

I do dislike Mae as a character, her naivety and eagerness to be a tool made her vastly uninteresting when one can read about figures like Tris or Katniss fighting against the roles they’re being forced into. I initially thought that’s what I would be seeing from Mae. I was eager to see her team up with others to try to fight the Circle, instead of eagerly involving herself more and more. She also shows that she’s pretty much a terrible friend as she all but forgets Annie and the problems Annie goes through. She also doesn’t seem to think about what she’s hearing and use the information to compare to other things she’s learned. We see figures that challenge the circle being brought down by various scandals that happen out of nowhere and she never even considers Circle involvement.

 

In closing, this was a very clever book by Dave Eggers. By looking at where companies like Google or Facebook could go, he forces us to start considering where we draw our own individual lines. Eggers constructed a great corporation “baddie”, but could not construct a strong enough protagonist, which is a shame since he made her a female in a time when we are seeking stronger female literary characters. Dave, you’ve made a good antagonist, now maybe flesh us out a real protagonist.