The Circle

By: Dave Eggers

Narrated by: Dion Graham

Length: 13 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

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, social media, banking, and purchasing with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of civility and transparency.

As Mae tours the open-plan office spaces, the towering glass dining facilities, the cozy dorms for those who spend nights at work, she is thrilled with the company’s modernity and activity. There are parties that last through the night, there are famous musicians playing on the lawn, there are athletic activities and clubs and brunches, and even an aquarium of rare fish retrieved from the Marianas Trench by the CEO.

Mae can’t believe her luck, her great fortune to work for the most influential company in the world—even as life beyond the campus grows distant, even as a strange encounter with a colleague leaves her shaken, even as her role at the Circle becomes increasingly public.

What begins as the captivating story of one woman’s ambition and idealism soon becomes a heart-racing novel of suspense, raising questions about memory, history, privacy, democracy, and the limits of human knowledge.

©2013 Dave Eggers (P)2013 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“A vivid, roaring dissent to the companies that have coaxed us to disgorge every thought and action onto the Web . . . Carries the potential to change how the world views its addicted, compliant thrall to all things digital. If you work in Silicon Valley, or just care about what goes on there, you need to pay attention.” (Dennis K. Berman, The Wall Street Journal)

“The particular charm and power of Eggers’s book . . . could be described as ‘topical’ or ‘timely,’ though those pedestrian words do not nearly capture its imaginative vision . . . Simply a great story, with a fascinating protagonist, sharply drawn supporting characters and an exciting, unpredictable plot . . . As scary as the story’s implications will be to some readers, the reading experience is pure pleasure.” (Hugo Lindgren, The New York Times Magazine)

Dystopian Near Future

This portrayal of a future in which the public eagerly embraces lives of constant electronic surveillance is marred by a lack of deep character development, particularly for the protagonist, May, a spineless young woman, who jettisons family, friends, and critical thinking, in the insatiable quests for "smiles" from her social media followers, and status within the increasingly totalitarian Circle. It is 1984 for the 21st Century.

Couple words are wrong, the accents are weird

I like it, it's very chilling, the narrator is weird for a female main character.

Entertaining but a bit dumb and very predictable

The whole “social media is ruining our lives” thing is a bit heavy handed, but the story is suitably entertaining. Narration is great, and I enjoyed the play on the unreliable narrator perspective. Overall it’s just okay.

Amazing look into our not so distant future

What if ever evil thought or stupid mistake was forever known about you, to all?

Would you welcome everyone knowing about the time you failed? Every moment of doubt? What if the public at large was free to judge your every move?

Well, put on your seatbelt, this book explores, in horrifying detail just such a world. Enjoy!

Perfect future or techno cult?

I’ve had this in my library for ages now and I hadn’t watched the film adaptation so I decided to give it a try. I know the book is always better, but I had seen some not so great reviews of the film which deterred me from listening sooner. I must say I was pleasantly surprised. The only reason I didn’t give it full stars was because it was a bit of a slow burn but on the other hand it brought a creeping sense of dread fueled by Mae’s kind of obsessive mania in a really effective way. I found myself agreeing and on board with some of The Circles aspirations in the beginning and it just becomes more and more until there are no more metaphorical lines to cross in a realistically scary way. The negative side effects of what constant bombardment of information and what societies obsession with instant gratification can do to an average person morphs Mae in a really interesting direction that kept held my attention even if there were some less than exciting chapters. The narration was perfect to me. Dion Graham had great distinct voices without being overly nasally for the females. Sometimes a narrator can get carried away but I think there was a cool balance of flow and flare so to say. Overall, a good listen and neat story.

Terrifying view of the future

I couldn’t stop listening! The book was such a page turner and one of the best fiction novels I’ve read in a while. Just when I thought the circle’s ideas couldn’t get worse, they’d introduce some new horror. The only critique I have is that Mae didn’t have much of a personality. I did love seeing her slow demise, but it could have been more powerful if she’d been less bland from the start. I also found it unbelievable that almost every character immediately accepted and praised everything the circle did, despite its obvious human rights implications.

I confess that I love the internet but I also love my privacy

The Circle is very clever, a well-reasoned potential near future or even an alternate universe's present day. And not too alternate. We've been warned, is what we're being told: Don't be too enamored with social media. But ffs, haven't we heard this before? currently? What harm can it do to us in the long term?

There's quite a lot of sardonic humor in the story. If you appreciate sardonicism, The Circle is your kind of tale. If you don't know what sardonicism is, find another book.

It's very well narrated. Audiblers will enjoy and appreciate someone who can differentiate characters by their individual voices and not just by nationality. You know what I mean — if there are Russian or German or English or Irish characters, e.g., many narrators give the same voice to every person of that particular nationality. I've just been bingeing the Tom Clancy series — the books Mr. Clancy wrote without co-authors or that others wrote after his death — and two of the narrators are in the latter category, with one accent to differentiate characters strictly by nationality. I hate that. Even Mom and Dad used different voices when they read to me at night! The Circle improves upon a parent's efforts about a hundredfold. I rarely need to figure out who's speaking, because each character has their own unique speech pattern and their own unique tone of voice. (Those Clancy thrillers ought to be re-recorded with that in mind.)

As a near-dystopian bedside story, The Circle is an interesting listen. There are a lot of chapters, but they are quite short, so it moves along nicely. It's a Goldilocks read: not too slow, not too fast, but just right.

The Circle reminds me of two other Audible selections: Qualityland and Daemon. I recommend all three.

Terrifying look at a techno-destruction of privacy

[NOTE: Mild spoilers below.]

A terrifying look into a future where companies like Google and Facebook leverage the power of Big Data to obliterate privacy and track every minute aspect of our lives. The Circle is quite obviously a fictionalized portrayal of largely Google but with aspects of Facebook and Twitter thrown in. The ability of the company in the novel to destroy privacy and position itself to establish totalitarian control of our future is a bit of a stretch but not as much as you might think. The novel also gives a glimpse into the naivete of the millenials and other young people whose "progressive" thinking on information, collectivism and social interaction empower this risk to all of our privacy. The term used late in the book - infocommunism - perfectly summarizes the result of this dangerous lurch toward tracking, recording, monitoring, datafying and analyzing all aspects of our lives.

SOOO good!!

What made the experience of listening to The Circle the most enjoyable?

The story sucks you in. The main character was highly relatable to me. Social media is starting to take over the world, politics, and people's minds. Eggers is vivid and super descriptive, I felt like I was there. The complex relationships, sex, and the inner workings and details of the circle sucked me in. One of the best books I have ever read- or listened to. I want a sequel!!

What other book might you compare The Circle to and why?

1984

Have you listened to any of Dion Graham’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

The narrator was flawless. He could even play girls and had great voices for all the characters.

Any additional comments?

Get it!!

A most insightful book, the "1984" of this century

What did you love best about The Circle?

The insights into the purposes and harm being caused by the big internet companies (Google, Facebook, etc) are nothing short of profound and are very moving.

The author's insights into how big companies work also remind me of the book "The Organization Man" from the 1950s, and his fiction-based warnings of where we're so rapidly heading are both shocking and very well-written.

As someone who worked in R&D for a major multi-national company for his whole career, I found this books' insights to be very compelling and nearly overwhelming in both their accuracy and depth. Google is different from other companies, but not *that* different.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Mae Holland, the central character, is very convincing and illustrates how a big company can take a new employee and remake him/her in their own image. This process is similar in many respects to my own development working for my corporate employer - I retired a few years ago after a successful career.

What does Dion Graham bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The narration was very effective in developing a better understanding of the book's content, much more so than a traditional text-based book format.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

SECRETS ARE LIES

SHARING IS CARING

PRIVACY IS THEFT

Any additional comments?

I can't recommend this book highly enough - it is must reading for everyone in these rapidly changing times. But where do we go from here, and how would we get there? It may already be too late to change direction.