The Circle

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 America--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. - Goodreads

Just give me a second while I panic.

Okay. Temporarily calm. The Circle was great because it makes you think hard about the things our society deems 'normal' a la 1984 and Brave New World, just aimed at a different demographic. It uses social media as the "Big Brother", which isn't exactly a new concept, but one I haven't seen executed in quite the same way before. The reader also experiences the story from a point of view not often found in dystopian (utopian?) literature, but I'll let you discover that for yourself. This book accomplishes what, I think, it set out to do - thoroughly creep me out and want to deactivate all of my social media accounts. A few weeks on, I am no longer shaking in my Tweets, but the warnings have stuck with me.

The world building took up a lot of this book, which was important as the 'point' revolved around a firm grasp of this not-so-distant future. That begin said, this isn't necessarily a plot driven novel. And, while the 'big twist' was almost surprising, it wasn't given enough time or weight in the end. I wouldn't say this is a shortcoming, necessarily, as the world itself was shocking enough to get the point across. At the time of reading it, I would have said the world Eggers created was a bit far fetched and unrealistic, given recent news I'm not so sure anymore. Apparently neither is anyone else as sales of 1984 have skyrocketed, although that could be Newspeak "alternative fact", I suppose.

Anyway.

The character development was left wanting, and I really quite disliked the main character Mae. She represents the hopeful yet naive, or perhaps a better word is delusional, mentality we see over and over in literature (looking at you, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, The Great Gatsby, and Les Misérables). Although her characterization seems almost necessary in the story, I would have liked to see a stronger character in her place. Ultimately it would have made the ending all the more poignant.

Along the same lines, I was not convinced that the general masses would go along with some of the ideas and technologies presented by The Circle. Unlike in 1984 or Brave New World there has been some set up for why the systems in place have been accepted. Although the attempt was made to justify systems and technology in this not-distant future, it did not seem sufficient.

If you can suspend a bit of disbelief and sink into the centralized world Eggars has created in the campus of The Circle, the book is quite entertaining and even more unnerving. Will it impact generations like its predecessors? I highly doubt it. I am definitely looking forward to the film coming out starring Emma Watson and Tom Hanks, though!