The Circle

by Dave Eggers

Book Overview

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER - A bestselling dystopian novel that tackles surveillance, privacy and the frightening intrusions of technology in our lives--a "compulsively readable parable for the 21st century" (Vanity Fair). When Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world's most powerful internet company, she feels she's been given the opportunity of a lifetime. The Circle, run out of a sprawling California campus, links users' personal emails,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345807294
• ISBN13: 9780345807298
• Release Date: April 2014
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 512 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.1" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

A lot of unimportant information

the book was a good start and the concept is great, but the book just drags on over 400 pages of unimportant things and gets so drawn into the tiniest of details

This book Is my favorite by far

I found this book to he brilliant captivating from the beginning, I found the main character to be very intriguing In a story that has a "frog in a pot of water" feel to it, It draws you in close Before delivering a brilliant Ending that packs a hard punch, Some may say that the Main character is boring or lacks Personality but I would Strongly disagree. She isnt some bold protagonist that is activly fighting against a corrupt system like in so many other generic dystopian novels but Rather she is one among the masses, going along with the flow of things, While you the reader watch as the injustices in their society grow stronger with every page. I belive most would prefer a classic heroine but thats not how the real world works and seeing a character that is focused on bettering their immediate situations rather than dropping everything and risking it all to save the world Is refreshing and frustrating beacause From outside perspective you can recognize how their world could have been better if they took the time to put in the work. They are not a cookie cutter hero and they act like most people would and I find that beautiful beacause its a reminder that you can do better.

A limp, sophomoric attempt at a dystopian novel

“The Circle” is an utterly vapid and vacuous book, vacant of any original ideas or conclusions, and helmed by what is quite possibly the most unbelievably puerile protagonist I’ve ever had the misfortune to encounter. Which is a shame, because I’ve been a big fan of Eggers’ ever since I read his brilliant memoir, “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.” That he could write a book as beautiful and elegiac as that book was makes it doubly infuriating to read “The Circle,” which is essentially a half-baked attempt to explore some 80-year-old Orwellian tropes, with a heavy (and heavy-handed) helping of ill-advised Ayn Rand-esque musings for good measure. At least in Rand’s case, though, even if you don’t buy into her philosophy, you can’t deny her talent as a writer in bringing her characters to vivid life and in her ability to draw you into the worlds she creates. This book, however, is a mess, from its derivative plot, to its heroine’s complete lack of any credibility or agency, to its infuriating knack for making you believe something interesting is almost about to happen, only to deliver an epic let-down. Definitely not worth anyone’s time—other than (maybe?) the Eggers completist, if such a species of reader even exists. Sadly, in the end this book is all just one giant Circle-jerk.