This is the sequel to THE CIRCLE, which I really enjoyed, so I was looking forward to more tech dystopia.
The Circle has evolved since its last outing, having bought out a vast e-commerce company named after a South American jungle, and co-opted even more aspects of billions of seemingly willing individuals’ lives. Delaney Wells parents are just some of the collateral damage and whilst they have now happily adapted to the financial benefits of working for the biggest monopoly on the planet, she’s out for revenge. Having spent several years building up a profile that she hopes will get her access to the Every’s famed campus, Treasure Island, Delaney is in: she has attained the status of an Everyone, as employee’s are known, and her plans to bring down the company from the inside can start to take shape. The strategy is simple – to seed a series of ever more appalling privacy invading, human rights busting ideas that will shock the public and destroy the Every’s reputation.
As a new employee, Delaney’s required to rotate between different departments as part of her onboarding and this allows Eggers to introduce some of the more Orwellian ideas the Every has developed – from a tool that analyses reading habits and uses the data to “improve” novels, including stripping them of any content that might be triggering or unacceptable to modern day readers; to chips implanted in children so they can never get lost. From an app that will organise and rate every aspect of your life and suggest all manner of ways you can become “better”, whether it’s giving you a well done ping every time you use a new word, even if incorrectly, to buzzing every 13 minutes to remind you to stretch; to a service that digitally scans all your old photos and unwanted possessions so the real ones can be disposed of, freeing up more space for the buying of more things….The world of Every is one in which the wrong reaction can see you publicly shamed in front of millions and your job prospects destroyed. It’s one in which the concept of cancel culture has gone mad and existential guilt about the climate crisis has created a generation of moralisers who ban bananas on a whim and without a second thought for the livelihoods of those growing them. Where algorithms decide whether you get promoted or sacked and every piece of art, theatre or film has a definitive crowd-sourced score to tell you how good it is.
With Delaney thrown into the mix, the Every enters even more terrifying territory – so we get Friendy, an app that rates your friendships, using facial expressions, tone of voice and eye contact. Then HearMe, a smart speaker variation that actively listens to all the conversations taking place in the privacy of your own home and, in the name of preventing domestic violence, alerts the police if voices are raised or certain phrases used.
The trouble is, none of Delaney’s proposals have the desired effect. On the contrary, the public embrace every violation of their rights and are utterly devoted to the sharing is caring ideology and drive to rid the world of subjectivity, espoused by Mae Holland, star of THE CIRCLE, and now CEO of the Every. Mae doesn’t make an appearance until the end of this novel but it’s a pretty impactful one when she does. The other characters that populate Delaney’s world include her half-hearted and complacent partner in crime is Wes Makazian, a former college professor and campaigner against the Every, Meena Agarwal, and Kiki, who takes Delaney under her wing as a new arrival on campus and is slowly unravelling as she struggles to match the unrelenting expectations of the various apps that subject her life to constant surveillance and criticism.
From the trend for very tight-fitting lycra that nods to the absence of individuality, to the naivety of Every volunteers embarking on a social project to help the “unhoused”, Eggers novel is rich in satire – and as a vegan I especially enjoyed his lampooning of the holier than thou morality that can be associated with this personal choice. It’s also good at asking big questions and drawing on current theories about human behaviour – including the idea that too much choice isn’t what we want, rather that having our choices restricted or made for us is very appealing. And as an exploration of the direction of travel in which we are inexorably moving thanks to companies like Google, Amazon, Meta and Apple, our seeming predilection for shaming and judging others whilst desperate to be “liked” ourselves, and of what exactly constitutes freedom, THE EVERY was a big hit with me.
Less successful are the plot, which is relatively thin when all’s said and done, and the characterisation, which is pretty shallow. Overall though, the big tech nightmare Eggers has so confidently imagined more than carries THE EVERY and it is a clever, intriguing, timely and very readable novel.
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