Dave Eggers. I know right? You weren't quite expecting that. 22,421 Ratings · 2,730 ReviewsI mean, there are worse candidates for that level of popularity. And it's only his sixth most popular book. His first one, which I've read (my only Egger so far) and much enjoyed, gets up in the 100,000+ range. Frankly, I can't fathom that kind of massive readership.Dude turns out a book yearly. And of course that's not all. He's got the whole publishing thing down. I really don't know where his eternal li...

In the late ‘60’s my father, who was a pilot, was approached about taking over the Saudi Arabia route, with a not inconsiderable jump in salary, plus other bonuses, paying our mortgage for the period of time we were gone, paying for whatever place we lived in there, or where my parents would have lived. My brothers and I would have been sent to various places for school, for me it would have been Switzerland, a boarding school. My father proceeded to “remind” us of the differences in the “custom...

Meet Alan Clay, an American salesman in his mid-fifties. He is in debt, his credit is bad, and his career is in decline. His daughter and ex-wife are not getting along. He is becoming increasingly aware of his shortcomings, though he remains optimistic. Alan’s company has sent him and a team of three young consultants to Jeddah to try to win the information technology infrastructure contract for King Abdullah Economic City, a sprawling new development in the middle of the Saudi Arabian desert. T...

It's two and a half stars, really. Almost three. Goodreads needs a rating for "Meh" because that's pretty much my reaction to it. Is it well written? Yes. Is it topical and relevant to our particular historical moment, this tale of a former manufacturing executive in existential crisis who finds himself in Saudi Arabia hoping to win an IT contract for the newly founded and still unfinished King Abdullah Economic City? Yes. Is it our mistaken belief as Americans who once made good product but hav...

A brilliant snapshot of the times. Lean, but powerful, and at times beautiful, Eggers does what he does best -- captures the anxiety, humanity, and confusion of living in a world where the lines of country and culture are slowly eroding. I felt it was perfect that Eggers used a Beckett quote at the beginning of the book. The book is bleak and tragicomic, like much of Beckett's work, yet very much focused on the human condition. Eggers brilliantly illustrates the absurdity and surreal nature of l...

This is what I imagine Dave Eggers’ thought process was like in composing Hologram:“I want to write another novel. Haven’t done that in a little while.But I want it to be socially relevant, a commentary like Zeitoun.But it would be so obvious if my protagonist were another clear victim of global catastrophe, like Zeitoun or What is the What.I know! I’ll make him seem like one of globalization’s possible bad guys – an American businessman who’s helped bring the catastrophe on himself! Except he s...

Update: This is an old review ... almost 4 years old. If you haven't read this book ... ( it's a quick read...enjoyable)..,You might consider it ... before seeing the movie which is being released in weeks ahead. Tom Hanks.. (we went to the same High School), is playing the lead in this film - adapted from Dave Eggers book! Dave Eggers seems to have an excellent understanding of the many problems we face in today's world. Yet, instead of forcing facts down our throats -- he creates a story-line

Back in the early '70s a co-worker of mine shipped off to Saudi Arabia to take a job as a construction project manager for the giant company building King Khalid Military City. John was supporting three ex-wives, and he decided making triple his U.S. salary, with no way to spend it and living beyond reach of the telephone, was preferable to his current state. A year or so later, he returned for a visit and dropped by the office. He showed us pictures of his home in a remote part of the Saudi des...

UPDATE 10/10/12: NBA finalist?! Give me a break. ---------Hey, Dave Eggers has a new book out and it looks wonderful.-What's it about?-Who cares, it's a lovely book to hold.And that's probably the most exceptional thing about the novel. McSweeney's has continued to impress me with the effort and care that they put into the packaging and physicalness of their books. Maybe the publishing industry should take note of what they're doing and start copying it. Now for the story: A mid-fifties business...

I really disliked this. I preordered it from Amazon last July after reading glowing reviews in newspapers and magazines. Other "goodreaders" commented that it was another self-indulgent exercise in navel-gazing by an angry white American male, but I dismissed them as too harsh-until I read it. Now I'm in that camp, too. I really admired another novel in this vein called Dear American Airlines, but this one never lived up to the hype. I found the plot to be sketchy and the characters underde

Conscientious moralist and all-round Good Egg(er) Dave Eggers in another era might be literary kryptonite. In these times, writers like Eggers who are devoted to giving voice to the voiceless need to be respected in spite of the contemptuous hauteur of educated neurotics like me who delight in turning our schnozes heavenward at this sort of thing. Even in the event of prose streamlined to within an inch of its life that wears its Beckett homage like a proud badge stating I’M DOING A WAITING FOR

It is 2010, and Alan Clay is waiting. Not for Godot, but for King Abdullah, in the King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC), which is a developing Red Sea port in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He is a 54-year-old failed American businessman in serious debt, evading his creditors and anguishing over how he will pay for his daughter's next year in college. He also has an angry ex-wife and a worrying lump on his neck. This is his last hurrah, a chance to turn his life from sad and broke to flush and secure, if h...

Personally I found this to be a little better than The Circle , but admittedly not by much. The good thing is that I found it to be far less dumb The Circle; the bad thing is that while I enjoyed reading it, ultimately it left no real impression on me.Take our character, Alan Clay. Clay is a 54 year old divorced, broke American salesman whose failed business ventures put him in great debt. Basically, Alan has continuously failed to adapt to a quickly changing, constantly globalizing economy i...

This book is about a character slowly imploding into his own manias. It reads like the memoir of a 21st century Willy Loman, so readers will either love or hate it. Thrust into a foreign country while battling his inner demons, the protagonist makes it clear that this is a do or die sales opportunity. Everything in his life somehow hinges on making this business deal go through. I happened to like the morosely interesting insights from a man caught in the grip of a debilitating, paralyzing mid-l...

Never judge a book by its cover. That's what I did with this book and I was very sorry I did. The cover is made to look like a hand-carved wooden cover on a book you might find in a Middle Eastern bazaar. I was also intrigued because the author wrote Zetouin, which is a non-fiction story about a muslim man who was falsely imprisoned after Katrina. The cover caught me, the slim New Orleans connection reeled me in.I should have known when the description said that the story was elegiac. Boy, was i...