Mae Holland has finally gotten her dream job! Through her connection to Annie, her best friend, who works at the social network giant called The Circle, Mae was able to snag an interview and she was hired!  The Circle, whose headquarters are located on a sprawling campus  in southern California offer a unique service through their universal operating system called TruYou which helps link a person’s email, social media, personal banking and shopping by creating a “true identity” which  allows people to minimize the number of passwords and other barriers to their internet experience and allows businesses to accurately determine what you might want or need based on your actual buying and social network activity.  As an employer, The Circle offers only the best to it’s employees: beautiful offices, dining and exercise facilities, a medical clinic, concert series and social events and even apartments that you can use if you have to work late. The Circle has thought of everything!

Initially Mae is asked to work in Customer Experience where she answer questions and asks people to evaluate their experience in using The Circle’s various services. It becomes very clear that maintaining and getting evaluations that are in the 90th percentile is the goal for anyone who works in Customer Experience and Mae soon becomes one of the best. However it is also important at the same time to maintain good relationships with others in the company and Mae after a few missteps realizes that she needs to maintain her social media connections within the company throughout the day, by “liking” posts made by others, taking pictures at various events and posting them to her page all to show that she is part of the Circle and a team player.  Soon Mae’s CE scores are regularly in the upper 90’s  and her connected status through the Circle’s various social media sites is also very high and she is getting the attention of various important people as a rising star within the Circle.  

Mae’s meteoric rise within the company however is not without some cost.  Her parents and her former boyfriend do not seem to understand her need to be connected and responding to her social network at all hours of the day.  Her ex seems especially resistant to any social media help that she offers for his new business and Annie, her best friend seems distant and remote; maybe even jealous.  And then there is this strange man who approaches her and seems to know some dark secrets about the Circle, but disappears before she can get any straight answers.  As Mae tries to find the answers, the Circle begins to “complete” and Mae is right at the center of it all.    

Eggers has written an interesting and thought provoking book about social media and the way we have traded in real connection for superficial “likes” on our Facebook pages.  The  profound questions which he raises about the need for privacy and anonymity as well as making connections with what people are doing and to share what we are doing seems to be one of degree, but none the less an important issue as we become more and more connected and our identities more visible.  Eggers, has paced this story well, and it is well written with good characters, although there are times when Mae feels a little less nuanced than I would have liked, although I feel that this was done purposefully for effect. Let me know what you think!

Brenda’s Rating: ****( 4 Stars out of 5)  

Recommend this book to: Ken, Keith, Sharon, Marian and Lauren

Book Study Worthy: Absolutely!

Read in ebook format.