The Circle

The Circle by Dave Eggers
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book is equal parts genius and frustration.

Genius- the services described in here that seem like a good ideas, like health plotting, tiny cameras, but Eggers adds just enough extra to make it uncomfortable (being tricked into swallowing a tracker, putting cameras where no one would know, etc.)
— he captures the social pressures to be on social media (“it’s not mandatory, but why wouldn’t you want to share”.)
—helps us think about the fine line between transparency and no privacy...is full disclosure what
we want/ need?
—does a good job of how showing how addicting online affirmations (and how debilitating online jeers) can be

Frustration— Eggers is arguably a genius (staggeringly so), but his novel was all over the place.
Bits and pieces of Mae’s life are incorporated only to fall off. Like kayaking. Did she really never go kayaking again? Her family falls off the map when they turn off the cameras...did she really not try to find them?
Also Mae goes from being humiliated by having a potential boyfriend over-sharing and then becoming a walking camera with full transparency...that leap doesn’t feel authentic to the reader. Neither do several of her other choices once she goes transparent...(finding Mercer, going back to Francis, etc.). There just isn’t enough to help the reader understand how Mae goes from casual user to full circle groupie.
The love interests make no sense and detract from the plot. Even the reveal at the end falls flat. The fact that Mae is so giddy about them at first seems juvenile and doesn’t help us like her (if we’re supposed to.)

Bottom line: read this book if you want a heads up into how a company could potentially supplant government. But don’t expect a well-thought out plot or characters.

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