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3.36 AVERAGE
3.36 AVERAGE
Wow. I feel that even opening up this window and writing a review at all is a betrayal of the spirit of the novel. Let's just say that this was a heart-pounding novel full of what-ifs about tech companies that start out with grand intentions of making the internet/world a better place, but make you wonder if they're forgetting to not be evil. I don't think I can let you have a virtual experience of this- just read the book yourself. I'll be here catching my breath.
This book is deeply troubling, nay, horrifying. In any number of dystopian classics, like 1984 or Brave New World, we're dropped in media res; however it happened, the world has gone down the tubes. In The Circle, Eggers shows us the world going down the tubes. This is how the world becomes brave and new. Though as Neil Postman rightly points out in Amusing Ourselves To Death, this process will be much more akin to Brave New World than 1984. It won't be forced upon us; we'll ask for it. It will come in the guises of convenience and entertainment.
Part critique, part cautionary tale, this book is a 500 page thought experiment about the effects of social media and the internet's increasing reach into our lives. And what better place to think on this than a work of fiction? This is one direction internet/social media culture could take us.
There's a nod to Kafka in the extremity--the almost absurdity--of certain events, but nothing ever seems implausible. This is no small feat in a book of this sort. There's never that "Hey, wait a minute" moment you might expect where the narrative comes untethered from reality. Eggers keeps it reined in just tightly enough.
This book isn't just a social/cultural/technological commentary, though; Eggers manages to weave a pretty compelling personal narrative as well. In 1984, for instance, we see an awakening--Winston slowly emerges from his complacent drudgery to eventually condemn the world around him. In The Circle, we're shown the reverse--the descent into complacency. The characters seemed a little wooden and one dimensional at first, but over the course of the narrative become more interesting, though that dimensionality only comes through their capacity to change, to shed depth rather than acquire it. (This may be a point of contention w/r/t the protagonist, whether she really transforms, or simply realizes her true self more fully.)
All of that being said, I should make point that this book was really fun to read.
Well, aside from the feeling absolutely horrified for humanity part.
Part critique, part cautionary tale, this book is a 500 page thought experiment about the effects of social media and the internet's increasing reach into our lives. And what better place to think on this than a work of fiction? This is one direction internet/social media culture could take us.
There's a nod to Kafka in the extremity--the almost absurdity--of certain events, but nothing ever seems implausible. This is no small feat in a book of this sort. There's never that "Hey, wait a minute" moment you might expect where the narrative comes untethered from reality. Eggers keeps it reined in just tightly enough.
This book isn't just a social/cultural/technological commentary, though; Eggers manages to weave a pretty compelling personal narrative as well. In 1984, for instance, we see an awakening--Winston slowly emerges from his complacent drudgery to eventually condemn the world around him. In The Circle, we're shown the reverse--the descent into complacency. The characters seemed a little wooden and one dimensional at first, but over the course of the narrative become more interesting, though that dimensionality only comes through their capacity to change, to shed depth rather than acquire it. (This may be a point of contention w/r/t the protagonist, whether she really transforms, or simply realizes her true self more fully.)
All of that being said, I should make point that this book was really fun to read.
Well, aside from the feeling absolutely horrified for humanity part.
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The unsettling aspect of reading dystopian novels twelve years after their original publication is they resemble nowadays reality: picturing a society where everything is shared through social networks and every aspect of your life is recorded, controlled and judged according to the metrics of The Circle doesn't require a great effort of imagination.
The fact that this 400-page book is not divided in chapters, together with its pressing rhythm, makes it almost impossible to stop reading. On the other hand, I'm not entirely convinced by the portrayal of characters, who all seemed rather insignificant: certainly the society here described encourages homogenisation and dissuades one's personality to stand out, but does this imply total flatness? Mae's emotional range feels somewhat limited, even at the start of the book, long before she is pressured into classifying everything with a smile or a frown.
(February 2025)
The fact that this 400-page book is not divided in chapters, together with its pressing rhythm, makes it almost impossible to stop reading. On the other hand, I'm not entirely convinced by the portrayal of characters, who all seemed rather insignificant: certainly the society here described encourages homogenisation and dissuades one's personality to stand out, but does this imply total flatness? Mae's emotional range feels somewhat limited, even at the start of the book, long before she is pressured into classifying everything with a smile or a frown.
(February 2025)
This book made me anxious.
And... the sexual content was a bit much.
Too much. Wasn't needed in my opinion.
And... the sexual content was a bit much.
Too much. Wasn't needed in my opinion.
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This was a very speedy read because there's nothing to savor here, just 500 pages of dialogue (mostly) between people who are taking surveys, making decisions about online and real-world privacy, and pretty much figuring out how to turn every breath we take into data points to be analyzed by marketers. So yes, as all reviewers have no doubt said, it is a dystopian view of a very near future.
The Circle is a company undisguisedly similar to Facebook -- comparisons to Google are also appropriate. The portrayal of a kind of addiction to high ratings (97 is not good enough, so send a followup to see if you can get it changed to 100) reminded me of present-day college students, many of whom are distraught when they don't get an A.
This book gave me several things to think about -- and since I deal with many of these issues and potential futures all the time in my work, that was a little surprising. I enjoyed the ideas brought out, put forward, but this is barely a novel at all. More like an essay thinly disguised as a novel. If you demand character development or skillful use of language, this is not that kind of novel. I enjoyed it but would be hesitant to recommend it to many people.
The Circle is a company undisguisedly similar to Facebook -- comparisons to Google are also appropriate. The portrayal of a kind of addiction to high ratings (97 is not good enough, so send a followup to see if you can get it changed to 100) reminded me of present-day college students, many of whom are distraught when they don't get an A.
This book gave me several things to think about -- and since I deal with many of these issues and potential futures all the time in my work, that was a little surprising. I enjoyed the ideas brought out, put forward, but this is barely a novel at all. More like an essay thinly disguised as a novel. If you demand character development or skillful use of language, this is not that kind of novel. I enjoyed it but would be hesitant to recommend it to many people.
Kolejna książka tego autora która zmierza do niewiadomo czego. Może podróż ma nam wystarczyć ale nie jest to mój ulubiony rodzaj prowadzenia narracji.
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
This book is, overall, better than I thought it was going to be after the first 30 pages or so, so I'm glad I pushed it out.
Like most of Dave Eggers' work, it is well written with touches of humor, and it kept me reading. It's an interesting thought experiment, seeing the dystopian tropes we're all familiar with made very possible with technology we're all familiar with. For that, the book gets two stars.
Unfortunately, as many reviewers pointed out below, the main character is SUPREMELY unlikeable -- not in that great "love to hate" kind of way or in the thoughtful "mirror of ourselves" kind of way, but rather in the insipid, childishly selfish, and infuriatingly dumb kind of way. Even all that might be overlooked if she weren't so damn boring. When Mercer tells her she's changed and that she's become boring ever since working for the Circle, I snorted out loud in disbelief -- no way was this girl EVER interesting.
Dystopian protagonists work either because they fight against the regime or because they slowly come to drink the Kool-Aid of the regime. Mae does neither -- she's invested, hook, line, and sinker, from day one. It's even more upsetting when you realize that she's supposed to be us. Unfortunately, it doesn't read so much as a profound indictment of society as a crotchety old person shaking his fist at the young folk. He may be right, but it's difficult to take seriously when it feels like a rambling scolding.
Moreover, we get no relief from this vapid character, as nearly every other character in the book is more or less the same. Annie, Francis, the other Circlers... ugh, my skin crawled every time one of them spoke. Mae's parents are at least different from the others, but they were too underdeveloped to add much to the story, and Mercer was too heavy-handed and one-dimensional to carry his weight as a character.
The worst part is that the very important message about privacy versus security is significantly diluted because, as Eggers famously bragged, he did NO research before writing. That's all well and good for a thought experiment, but unfortunately, when your dystopian novel is supposed to a logical extension of actual current trends, and when you want your book to actually mean something to your audience, and when your audience knows more about a topic than you do, you have to do a little research about the topic. I don't mean he should have toured Google's facilities -- I mean there's no way a future version of ourselves (Mae) needs so much technology explained to her (and, by proxy, to us). Those heavy-handed moments of exposition kept taking me out of the book.
Have a little faith in your readers, Eggers -- we can understand basic tech, and we can handle an actual nuanced discussion of an important issue instead of a ham-fisted doomsday prediction.
Like most of Dave Eggers' work, it is well written with touches of humor, and it kept me reading. It's an interesting thought experiment, seeing the dystopian tropes we're all familiar with made very possible with technology we're all familiar with. For that, the book gets two stars.
Unfortunately, as many reviewers pointed out below, the main character is SUPREMELY unlikeable -- not in that great "love to hate" kind of way or in the thoughtful "mirror of ourselves" kind of way, but rather in the insipid, childishly selfish, and infuriatingly dumb kind of way. Even all that might be overlooked if she weren't so damn boring. When Mercer tells her she's changed and that she's become boring ever since working for the Circle, I snorted out loud in disbelief -- no way was this girl EVER interesting.
Dystopian protagonists work either because they fight against the regime or because they slowly come to drink the Kool-Aid of the regime. Mae does neither -- she's invested, hook, line, and sinker, from day one. It's even more upsetting when you realize that she's supposed to be us. Unfortunately, it doesn't read so much as a profound indictment of society as a crotchety old person shaking his fist at the young folk. He may be right, but it's difficult to take seriously when it feels like a rambling scolding.
Moreover, we get no relief from this vapid character, as nearly every other character in the book is more or less the same. Annie, Francis, the other Circlers... ugh, my skin crawled every time one of them spoke. Mae's parents are at least different from the others, but they were too underdeveloped to add much to the story, and Mercer was too heavy-handed and one-dimensional to carry his weight as a character.
The worst part is that the very important message about privacy versus security is significantly diluted because, as Eggers famously bragged, he did NO research before writing. That's all well and good for a thought experiment, but unfortunately, when your dystopian novel is supposed to a logical extension of actual current trends, and when you want your book to actually mean something to your audience, and when your audience knows more about a topic than you do, you have to do a little research about the topic. I don't mean he should have toured Google's facilities -- I mean there's no way a future version of ourselves (Mae) needs so much technology explained to her (and, by proxy, to us). Those heavy-handed moments of exposition kept taking me out of the book.
Have a little faith in your readers, Eggers -- we can understand basic tech, and we can handle an actual nuanced discussion of an important issue instead of a ham-fisted doomsday prediction.