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A review by brittrivera
A Hologram for the King by Dave Eggers
3.0
I picked up this book for three reasons:
1. It is written by Dave Eggers, a writer I enjoy reading and want to read more books by
2. It was on the "buy 2 get 1 free" table at Barnes and Noble and my mom had already picked out two other books
3. I heard it was going to be a movie starring George Clooney so I thought, "Why not?"
This book reminds me a lot of a film also starring George Clooney called Up in the Air or what I like to call the genre of White Middle Age Men Having Existential Crises. Funny how I like that genre, but dislike its female counterpart mostly because those books/movies involve a 40 something divorcee traveling "because she can" and finding "real world experiences" all while "discovering herself."
In this story Alan Clay has every right to be a Man On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown. He's a failure as deemed by society and therefore has a hard time living with himself. This is one of those books where you find yourself going, "Oh no, you're really not going to do that, are you?" A LOT. Alan is flawed, so much so that he seems too flawed and therefore unrealistic if that makes any sense. But I liked him while still feeling embarrassed/pitting him at the same time.
A Hologram for the King is a book that could only exist today; It captures our fears of the increasingly global economy, the idea of being replaced by technology, the cultural misunderstandings despite the fact that the "world is flat." All interesting ideas viewed through the lens of a middle aged man poised at the turn of it all.
“They were so in love with the world, and so disappointed in every aspect of it.”
*Update* It's Tom Hanks, not George Clooney. Strangely I can see both working out.
1. It is written by Dave Eggers, a writer I enjoy reading and want to read more books by
2. It was on the "buy 2 get 1 free" table at Barnes and Noble and my mom had already picked out two other books
3. I heard it was going to be a movie starring George Clooney so I thought, "Why not?"
This book reminds me a lot of a film also starring George Clooney called Up in the Air or what I like to call the genre of White Middle Age Men Having Existential Crises. Funny how I like that genre, but dislike its female counterpart mostly because those books/movies involve a 40 something divorcee traveling "because she can" and finding "real world experiences" all while "discovering herself."
In this story Alan Clay has every right to be a Man On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown. He's a failure as deemed by society and therefore has a hard time living with himself. This is one of those books where you find yourself going, "Oh no, you're really not going to do that, are you?" A LOT. Alan is flawed, so much so that he seems too flawed and therefore unrealistic if that makes any sense. But I liked him while still feeling embarrassed/pitting him at the same time.
A Hologram for the King is a book that could only exist today; It captures our fears of the increasingly global economy, the idea of being replaced by technology, the cultural misunderstandings despite the fact that the "world is flat." All interesting ideas viewed through the lens of a middle aged man poised at the turn of it all.
“They were so in love with the world, and so disappointed in every aspect of it.”
*Update* It's Tom Hanks, not George Clooney. Strangely I can see both working out.