The Circle

*Starred Review* Most of us imagine totalitarianism as something imposed upon us but what if we're complicit in our own oppression? That's the scenario in Eggers' ambitious, terrifying, and eerily plausible new novel. When Mae gets a job at the Circle, a Bay Area tech company that's cornered the world market on social media and e-commerce, she's elated, and not just because of the platinum health-care package. The gleaming campus is a wonder, and it seems as though there isn't anything the company can't do (and won't try). But she soon learns that participation in social media is mandatory, not voluntary, and that could soon apply to the general population as well. For a monopoly, it's a short step from sharing to surveillance, to a world without privacy. This isn't a perfect book the good guys lecture true-believer Mae, and a key metaphor is laboriously explained but it's brave and important and will draw comparisons to Brave New World and 1984. Eggers brilliantly depicts the Internet binges, torrents of information, and endless loops of feedback that increasingly characterize modern life. But perhaps most chilling of all is his notion that our ultimate undoing could be something so petty as our desperate desire for affirmation. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Eggers' reputation as a novelist continues to grow. Expect this title to be talked about, as it has an announced first printing of 200,000 and the New York Times Magazine has first serial rights.--Graff, Keir Copyright 2010 Booklist

When 20-something Mae Holland is recruited to work at the Circle, a sort of social network on steroids that consolidates its users' various online identities (personal e-mail, social media, financial services), she's thrilled at the company's grand modernity and cutting-edge aesthetic. She delights in the Circle's exuberance and the grand fetes it throws. But as her role in the company becomes increasingly public, she becomes increasingly wary of the Circle's role in the lives of Americans. An encounter with Kalden, a shadowy figure who issues ominous pronouncements about the Circle's contribution to a dystopia, further dampens Mae's enthusiasm. Dion Graham provides inventive narration in this audio edition-capturing Mae's breathless enthusiasm at landing the job. Graham also cleanly differentiates between characters, and provides them with simple but unique voices. Despite the longtime audio partnership between Graham and Eggers-the former read A Hologram for the King and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius-the narrator seems an odd choice for this title given its female protagonist. Graham has a deep, masculine voice-and at times it can be incongruous to hear him approximate the gasps and anxieties of a young woman. A Knopf hardcover. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Here Eggers (A Hologram for the King) pre-sents a dystopian near future where an all-encompassing Facebook/Google/Twitter hybrid offers its TruYou members total connectivity in an increasingly digital world. This satire follows its young protagonist, Mae Holland, as she is drawn ever deeper into the cultlike Circle, even going so far as to agree to "go transparent" by wearing a camera at all times so every moment of her life will be recorded. Despite lapsing occasionally into pedantry, the novel is entertaining and prescient. VERDICT Well read by Dion Graham, this is recommended for the general listener and especially for fans of dystopian literature. ["Eggers's seamless prose will suck readers into his satirical polemic against giving up privacy and should provide plenty of discussion around the water cooler-both literal and digital," read the review of the Knopf hc, LJ Xpress Reviews, 10/18/13.-Ed.]-Wendy -Galgan, St. Francis Coll., Brooklyn (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A massive feel-good technology firm takes an increasingly totalitarian shape in this cautionary tale from Eggers (A Hologram for the King, 2012, etc.). Twenty-four-year-old Mae feels like the luckiest person alive when she arrives to work at the Circle, a California company that's effectively a merger of Google, Facebook, Twitter and every other major social media tool. Though her job is customer-service drudgework, she's seduced by the massive campus and the new technologies that the "Circlers" are working on. Those typically involve increased opportunities for surveillance, like the minicameras the company wants to plant everywhere, or sophisticated data-mining tools that measure every aspect of human experience. (The number of screens at Mae's workstation comically proliferate as new monitoring methods emerge.) But who is Mae to complain when the tools reduce crime, politicians allow their every move to be recorded, and the campus cares for her every need, even providing health care for her ailing father? The novel reads breezily, but it's a polemic that's thick with flaws. Eggers has to intentionally make Mae a dim bulb in order for readers to suspend disbelief about the Circle's rapid expansion--the concept of privacy rights are hardly invoked until more than halfway through. And once they are invoked, the novel's tone is punishingly heavy-handed, particularly in the case of an ex of Mae's who wants to live off the grid and warns her of the dehumanizing consequences of the Circle's demand for transparency in all things. (Lest that point not be clear, a subplot involves a translucent shark that's terrifyingly omnivorous.) Eggers thoughtfully captured the alienation new technologies create in his previous novel, A Hologram for the King, but this lecture in novel form is flat-footed and simplistic. Though Eggers strives for a portentous, Orwellian tone, this book mostly feels scolding, a Kurt Vonnegut novel rewritten by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

*Starred Review* Most of us imagine totalitarianism as something imposed upon us—but what if we're complicit in our own oppression? That's the scenario in Eggers' ambitious, terrifying, and eerily plausible new novel. When Mae gets a job at the Circle, a Bay Area tech company that's cornered the world market on social media and e-commerce, she's elated, and not just because of the platinum health-care package. The gleaming campus is a wonder, and it seems as though there isn't anything the company can't do (and won't try). But she soon learns that participation in social media is mandatory, not voluntary, and that could soon apply to the general population as well. For a monopoly, it's a short step from sharing to surveillance, to a world without privacy. This isn't a perfect book—the good guys lecture true-believer Mae, and a key metaphor is laboriously explained—but it's brave and important and will draw comparisons to Brave New World and 1984. Eggers brilliantly depicts the Internet binges, torrents of information, and endless loops of feedback that increasingly characterize modern life. But perhaps most chilling of all is his notion that our ultimate undoing could be something so petty as our desperate desire for affirmation. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Eggers' reputation as a novelist continues to grow. Expect this title to be talked about, as it has an announced first printing of 200,000 and the New York Times Magazine has first serial rights. Copyright 2013 Booklist Reviews.

Mae Holland is 24 when she starts working at The Circle, a ubiquitous Internet company (think Google merged with Facebook , Twitter, and Amazon), where over 10,000 employees work at its sprawling Silicon Valley campus. As Mae discovers, The Circle provides a lot—every workplace perk you can imagine—but it also requires total buy-in, which causes Mae to stumble at first, but she soon learns to embrace it. The Circle, meanwhile, is making the world safe and connected by putting tiny cameras everywhere and computer chips in children's bodies, hatching ever bigger plans while its detractors fall by the wayside. As Mae tries to keep up with The Circle's increasingly demanding requirements for participation and sharing, she falls under its spell, believing she is loved by her millions of followers while distancing herself—and worse—from her parents and oldest friends. Verdict Although this novel lacks subtlety and provides few surprises, Eggers's (A Hologram for the King; Zeitoun) seamless prose will suck readers into his satirical polemic against giving up privacy and should provide plenty of discussion around the water cooler—both literal and digital. [See Prepub Alert, 8/12/13.]—Nancy H. Fontaine, Norwich P.L., VT (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

The latest offering from McSweeney's founder Eggers (A Hologram for the King) is a stunning work of terrifying plausibility, a cautionary tale of subversive power in the digital age suavely packaged as a Silicon Valley social satire. Set in the near future, it examines the inner workings of the Circle, an internet company that is both spiritual and literal successor to Facebook, Google, Twitter and more, as seen through the eyes of Mae Holland, a new hire who starts in customer service. As Mae is absorbed into the Circle's increasingly demanding multi- and social media experience, she plays an ever more pivotal role in the company's plans, which include preventing child abductions through microchips, reducing crime through omnipresent surveillance, and eliminating political corruption through transparency courtesy of personal cameras. Soon, she's not alone in asking what it will mean to "complete the Circle" as its ultimate goal comes into view; even her closest friends and family suspect the Circle is going too far in its desire to make the world a better, safer, more honest place. Eggers presents a Swiftian scenario so absurd in its logic and compelling in its motives that the worst thing possible will be for people to miss the joke. The plot moves at a casual, yet inexorable pace, sneaking up on the reader before delivering its warnings of the future, a worthy and entertaining read despite its slow burn. Agent: Andrew Wylie, The Wylie Agency. (Oct.)

The latest offering from McSweeney's founder Eggers (A Hologram for the King) is a stunning work of terrifying plausibility, a cautionary tale of subversive power in the digital age suavely packaged as a Silicon Valley social satire. Set in the near future, it examines the inner workings of the Circle, an internet company that is both spiritual and literal successor to Facebook, Google, Twitter and more, as seen through the eyes of Mae Holland, a new hire who starts in customer service. As Mae is absorbed into the Circle's increasingly demanding multi- and social media experience, she plays an ever more pivotal role in the company's plans, which include preventing child abductions through microchips, reducing crime through omnipresent surveillance, and eliminating political corruption through transparency courtesy of personal cameras. Soon, she's not alone in asking what it will mean to "complete the Circle" as its ultimate goal comes into view; even her closest friends and family suspect the Circle is going too far in its desire to make the world a better, safer, more honest place. Eggers presents a Swiftian scenario so absurd in its logic and compelling in its motives that the worst thing possible will be for people to miss the joke. The plot moves at a casual, yet inexorable pace, sneaking up on the reader before delivering its warnings of the future, a worthy and entertaining read despite its slow burn. Agent: Andrew Wylie, The Wylie Agency. (Oct.)