Privacy is basically seen as stealing from your fellows, and secrecy of any kind is the very same thing as a lie. In the world of The Circle, 'transparency' is fast becoming the ultimate proof of your goodness and value as a human being. Wielding satire like a machete, he serves up a work of dystopian fiction that takes aim at our social media-saturated lives. In The Circle, Eggers takes a stab at something new. Say it with us now, Shmoopers: 'Let the wild rumpus start.' If none of that rings a bell, maybe you know him as one of the scribes behind the 2009 film adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are.

You may also know him as a promoter of literacy education or as a writer committed to bringing human rights violations to light. The Circle comes to us from Dave Eggers, the man who founded McSweeney's and charmed the world by having enough sheer pluck to call his memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. And, hey, so what if realizing her full potential means that Mae needs to completely reorient her habits, her ideas, and her personal values? Nothing good is without sacrifice, right? She can bid sayonara to her sucky 9-to-5 at the utilities company in her hick hometown, and she can start to realize her full potential on the most immaculately landscaped tech campus the world has ever seen. The novel gets underway when 24-year-old Mae Holland lands a job at the main campus of the world's most innovative and prestigious tech company, called-you guessed it-the Circle.įor Mae, the job is a dream come true. But what would happen if, someday, all that data got turned against us? What if the people in charge of it started using it to control us? It's convenient, right? And we like to share.

We give up tons of data about ourselves every day without really thinking about it.

You probably already know that tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter know a lot about everything you do.

The circle eggers