Have you ever looked at a gorgeous sunset and thought, “ooh I’ve got to Instagram that.” When your kids say something cute, do you run to make it your Facebook status update? Do you spend more than your share of time trying to figure out how to squeeze your deep thoughts into Twitter-friendly 140 characters? If so, than Dave Eggers’ new novel, “The Circle” is right for you.
“Secrets are Lies. Sharing is Caring. Privacy is Theft.” These are the Orwellian beliefs of The Circle, a near futuristic internet company that feels like a mix of Google, Facebook and Apple.
Mae Holland is a “newbie” at the company, and the novel follows Mae’s journey as she is seduced by the amazing opportunities of her new job. Mae’s experience at The Circle provides Eggers with a great opportunity to explore when does complete information stop creating a better life and start jeopardizing the things in life that make it worth living.
Recruited by her university roommate Annie, who is in the company’s inner circle, the reader travels the path with Mae moving from reluctant sharing to absolutely ridiculous guidelines for network interaction (sending “smiles” and “frowns”, posting photos and links…sound familiar?) Mae soon becomes an even more impotent figure to the company by becoming “Transparent”, by being visually monitored by all of her followers at all times.
The book reads as a mix of social commentary and thriller. I devoured the first half of the book, spending half my time nodding at Eggers’ observations on society’s obsession with social media and half my time shaking my head at the author’s Luddite-like manifesto. I found the novel worked better as a piece of dystopian fiction, and seemed to drag a little in its suspense towards the end.
Whether you love it or hate it, this is a timely book that everyone will be talking about (or Tweeting about…or writing about in their Facebook status…)
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