The Circle

“It doesn't work that way!” Technology, business, biology, society. The Circle was sloppy. Eggers was going for creepy; due to haste or carelessness he ended up with farce. It just doesn't work.

The business model doesn't work. The vapid protagonist, part Mary Sue and part Candide, never actually does anything: events simply happen to her and she docilely keeps the plot moving. The Marianas Trench metaphor is just plain embarrassing: a transparent shark that eats ravenously, digests and shits in minutes/seconds, and can somehow survive unaffected at surface-level pressure. I mean really cringeworthy. I feel sorry for his editors: they must've tried really hard to talk him out of that.

I dunno. It just feels like Eggers is that angry uncle who won't stop talking about [insert topic here]. Yeah, it's an important subject that merits careful attention (online privacy, that is) but semicoherent rants help nobody.