Random Raving 6: (Desperate Post-Holiday Depression Edition): The Circle by Dave Eggers

I've finally finished all of my designated 'holiday-reading' (despite it being a good few weeks post-holiday – ah, the sadness)!

To top off my extremely varied holiday reading (covering zombies, sci-fi mysteries and senile old women) I read The Circle by Dave Eggers. I picked it up originally because of the bright red cover (I'm honestly like a child – anything fluorescent and shiny) but having read a little about it, I realised it's excatly the kind of book I'd want to read anyway.

The Circle is essentially a mildly-satirical exploration of the modern age of technology, information and the internal revolution, and it's potential development further down the line. The eponymous 'Circle' is the name of a technology company who revolutionises contemporary life by integrating all social media and electronic technology into one account allowing seamlessness is almost all aspects of life.

Eggers follows the career of Mae, a young graduate who joins The Circle with the help of her friend, Annie, a high-ranking executive in the company. As May gets dragged deeper and deeper into the philosophy and workings of The Circle, Eggers poses some extremely difficult questions about the future and the role of the internet. Should an all-encompassing internet account be used to police and enforce voting? Should electronic chips be used to track children so parents can know if they aren't where they're supposed to be? How much of a democratic state should be transparent? They're difficult questions, and I, for one, had any overwhelming feeling of revulsion at the increasingly penetrative ideals of The Circle.

I'd even say that the book has given me a new sense of apprehension about the potential pervasiveness of technology, and coming from a computer geek like me, that's really saying something. It's a great plot, and it's extremely well written – despite it's over 500 page length, it never drags at all.

Beyond the plot, the characters are interesting, if not ground-breaking. Mae perfectly plays the role of unwitting pawn and apprehensive new employee as she is taken down this path of difficult questions, and her journey is relatable, if difficult to watch (er... read?) at some points. By the end of the book it's really hard to recognise Mae, and that's a testament to just how well Eggers writes her journey. Supporting character Annie is perhaps the most the most intrinsically likeable, whilst potential love-interest Kalden offers an interesting counterbalance to the technology-focus of the rest of the novel. In all, the cast of characters feels well rounded and just about avoid being too 'typical'.

I was entirely unprepared for the conclusion. I thought I knew where it'd be going. I thought Mae's journey would spike off in a new direction, but Eggers plays a real curve ball. The real skill of the conclusion (perhaps not explicitly a twist) is that it's shocking but doesn't feel wrong. It fits the progression of the book and Mae's character, without being predictable. The few chapters before the finale also include another shocking (though in retrospect, relatively obvious) twist which starts to spiral towards the conclusion.

As things end, I was left wanting a sequel, but at the same time after seeing how far technology had integrated into people's lives by the end, I dread to think what a sequel might bring.

A fantastic read posing extremely difficult philosophical questions as we see the development of a malleable young woman through one of the most rapid periods of advancement in human history.

READ IT!

Writing: 7.5/10
Plot: 9/10
Characters 7.5/10
Conclusion: 10/10

Overall: 8.5/10

Random Raving 5 (Holiday Come-Down Edition) - The Night Guest

After two weeks sunning it up (and not getting even slightly tanned) my holiday is over and I'm back in the UK. It's probably a good job I'm back now, I'd exhausted my entire collection of holiday reading, and my 'to-read' pile is looking precariously shallow. On the bright side though, that means that I've got a lot of books to talk about over the next couple of weeks.

As promised in my first holiday reading review of World War Z by Max Brooks, this time I'm going to talk about The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane. 

NOTE: Some mild spoilers may follow.

The Night Guest is the latest in a growing list of books about mental health and the elderly (initially releasing shortly before the first book that I reviewed, Elizabeth is Missing). The book follow Ruth, an elderly widow living on the Australian coast. One morning Ruth is greeted by Frida, a carer sent by the government to help her around the house. As Frida gradually becomes more and more integrated with Ruth's life, and Ruth is haunted by sounds of a tiger in her living room (the eponymous 'Night Guest'), the book entirely leaves it up to the reader to establish what is real, what is in Ruth's head, and exactly who Frida actually is. 

As I've previously mentioned, I find mental illnesses associated with old age (including dementia) really difficult to read about, and as a result I was a little bit cautious going into this book. The very concept of an elderly woman 'troubled' by a tiger in her living room poses immediate questions about Ruth's mental capacity, and one of McFarlane's biggest successes is leaving the reader guessing throughout the entire book just what is real. 

Perhaps even more importantly, McFarlane succeeds in rationalising entirely irrational and impossible ideas through Ruth's perspective. The prospect of a tiger repeatedly entering a home on the extreme coast of Australia is tremendously unlikely, but Ruth is entirely convinced, and McFarlane's writing is so emotive and powerful that I genuinely found myself convincing that a tiger was in Ruth's house, despite knowing it was frankly stupid to believe so. 

Ruth herself is an excellent character, despite her flaws. Both fickle and fiercely independent, Ruth's development from a woman determined to survive without assistance to a woman entirely reliant on Frida is interesting. I do find that the jump is a little extreme at points. When we first meet Ruth she is extremely hesitant to believe or accept Frida, but in almost no time at all, and more importantly, without any real reason, Ruth quickly becomes far more docile and, for want of a better word, weak. It's a bit of a flaw in an otherwise very interesting character development. 

My other major gripe is with the overall storyline of the book. I just found it far too predictable. I understand that it's not about the plot as much as the development of the characters, but still, I feel like a little curveball or even a little something unexpected would have been extremely welcome. Don't get my wrong, I did enjoy the ending and it was fitting, but it was just too obvious all the way through. 

Overall then, a very interesting, if somewhat challenging, book that includes some fascinating characters and blurred lines between reality and Ruth's imagination, but some jumps were a little too big and it all felt a bit too easy and predictable. 

Well worth a read, especially if you've enjoy Elizabeth is Missing or have an interest in mental health and old age, but there were just a few too many hiccups to really blow me away.

Writing: 8.5/10

Plot: 5/10

Characters: 7.5/10

Conclusion: 7/10

Overall Rating: 7/10

Random Ravings 4 (Portuguese Edition) - World War Z

I'll be honest, this post comes from the extremely comfortable position of a sun lounger in Southern Portugal, and as any book lover knows, holidays usually mean one thing - lots and lots of reading.

11 days in and I've managed to plough through three books - The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane, Authority by Jeff VanderMeer and World War Z by Max Brooks - and I've just started a fourth - The Circle by Dave Eggers.

I'm going to write a post about each book over the next few weeks, but today is reserved exclusively for undoubtedly the best zombie book I've ever read: World War Z.

I've not been a fan of the zombie genre for a very long time now, finding all the books, TV and films really quite repetitive and decidedly unoriginal. It's quite ironic that one of the igniters of this recent zombie fad has been the book to restore my confidence 8 years after it burst onto the scene.

Brooks' book takes the form of a compilation of interviews with veterans of the Zombie Wars, from divers and soldiers to government officials and historians, and each set of interviews moves chronologically through the conflict, from 'patient zero' to the post-war economic, social and political recovery, covering almost everything imaginable in between. It's an interesting concept, and even though the victorious human victory is revealed by the very nature of the book, it removes none of the impact, tension and excitement from the picture unfolding.

Looking beyond the constraints of genre and content, the writing itself is actually really very good. Brooks' style is near effortless to read and, even more impressive is that every single interviewee has a completely individual perspective, character and feel that genuinely makes it seem like a work of non-fiction: every character is believable. That's no mean feat when you consider that there must be near enough 30 interviews in the book.

For me, what really stands out about World War Z is that it's not a conventional zombie story. Of course, the zombie uprising, conflict and victory is a crucial part, but it's not the only part. To a certain extent the book isn't about zombies. It's about political conflict, sheer geographical luck, human will and kindness.

The most interesting interviews aren't with soldiers on the front lines, but generals in the war rooms, survivors stranded out in the wilderness, political leaders dealing with international strain and so many more.

Brooks doesn't create a world ravaged by zombies, he creates a world, political structure and social order shaped by the strains of war, fear and death. It's not the world he destroys, it's the world he creates that allows the book to sing.

Sure, a (moderately) slim paperback is always going to leave a few gaps, and it'd be silly to pretend that there weren't some pretty large holes. Post-war Tibet is described as hosting the most populous city and Cuba the most vigorous economy, but these avenues feel woefully unexplored. There is a huge amount of eccentric (and overwhelmingly American) detail about the contribution of dogs during the war, life on the international space station and the varied effectiveness of castles, amongst much more, but it doesn't quite make up for some of the more obvious gaps.

Overall it's a corker of a book, brilliantly plotted and executed and packed with originality and charm. If you love zombie fiction this is the cornerstone to ravage and if you don't... well... you'll have a much higher opinion of it after this.

Let's just pretend the film never happened.

9.5/10