A review by samdalefox
The Circle by Dave Eggers

challenging slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

I read this because I had heard good reviews from people who don't usually read dystopican sci-fi type books, plus I saw the film advertsied on netflix and thought I'd like to read the book before trying the film. So I didn't have high expectations, but I did have expectations. I think that people like The Circle so much precisely because they've not read other dystopian scifi. If you’ve never swam in the ocean then of course a pool seems deep. The Circle is ok, but it's nothing new (totalitarian corporate capitalist technocracy has been around for decades) and it's certainly not done well. Eggers even cocks up the references and definitions by referring to it as communism....twice.

The usual themes emerge: the use, scope, and abuse of power that comes with who can own, access, and benefit/be penalised by technology. The limits of personal privacy and individualism vs the 'collective good' of transparency. The importance of consent and having the option to opt out. Very limited commentary on the role and limitations of democracy. It touched upon more modern ermeging issues such as changes to people's sense of identity, belonging, and self worth i.e., "The tools you use, artificially manufacture unaturally extreme social needs". Plus the addictiveness, feeling of urgency, and faux-connectedness of being 'very online'. In a nutshell, a society that knows the price of everything but the value of nothing.

I agree with the review referenced below. I will also add that I found Mae's character unbelievably naive. Even accounting for her desperate need for praise and age. For me things went downhill rapidly after the end of book one with her announcement
of going transparent
. Most events that occurred did so slowly, repetitively, superficially, predictably and naively. The ending did not surprise me or disappoint me, it was simply one big meh. It didn't scare me at all. In short, there are other books out there that have covered these topics in greater depth, with more interesting angles, and with a better command of storytelling. I'd recommend first reading Liu Cixin's scifi short story 'The Mirror'.

dllh's review: 
"This is fine, if a bit long and baggy, for like commodity fiction, but it was really disappointing as a book from an author with literary proclivities. It's an important subject whose potential is ruined in this book by a failure at some of the basics of writing well. The characters are just barely two dimensional, and their interactions often feel as if written by somebody who has never actually witnessed human interaction outside of badly written dialogue. The details of the book are sufficiently close to our current reality as to not feel outlandishly dystopian but sufficiently off kilter as to not feel quite real, which makes reading it a really strange experience. To work well, fiction of this sort needs to be either outlandish or close enough to reality that the divergences from reality are really significant, and I don't think Eggers achieves that balance."

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