What if there existed a company so big it did everything that Google, Facebook and PayPal do but also took over the realms of eBay, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple and the rest of the consumer internet? What if those combined riches allowed it to become more powerful than states, bigger even, as John Lennon put it, than Jesus? In Dave Eggers's marvellous new book of the same name, that company is the Circle. It knows everything and can do anything. Mr Eggers tells his topsy-turvy tale through Mae Holland, a new employee at the Circle. She joins the firm, is inducted into its way of doing things and quickly becomes indoctrinated as well. Mr Eggers makes little of Mae's personal journey; he is more interested in exploring the seductive appeal of technology and what people give up in exchange for its wonders. Too much, he concludes.
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