The Circle Book I, Part 1 Summary & Analysis

Summary: Book I, Part 1

Mae Holland is a young woman who just landed a job at the “Circle,” a prestigious, cutting-edge tech firm voted “most innovative” company four years in a row. Mae got the job through her friend from college, Annie Allerton. Annie, who is a few years older than Mae, has already earned a place in the Gang of 40, the company’s elite inner circle. While Mae is more straight-laced and anxious, Annie is more easy-going and relaxed. It baffles Mae how Annie rose through the ranks so quickly. During her orientation, Mae learns the Circle has a “campus” made up of several buildings where people work, sleep, socialize, and eat. Buildings are named for historical eras like “Renaissance,” and “Old West.” As she walks around, Mae reflects on how far she’s come from her last job, as an administrator at her local utility company. It was the only job she could get, and she had a massive student loan to start paying off. Now, as Mae looks around the Circle’s gleaming offices, she feels like she’s made it.

Annie joins Mae on her orientation. Her bubbly nonchalance sets Mae at ease. Annie leads Mae to a secret library of one of the company’s leaders, Eamon Bailey. The library is filled with antique books and a pole that leads down to Bailey’s garage spot. On the wall hangs a badly rendered portrait of the company’s three leaders, referred to as the Three Wise Men. Ty Gospodinov, the company’s founder, is a socially awkward tech genius who created TruYou, a unified operating system designed to streamline a person's online accounts into one searchable profile. Eamon Bailey is the company’s “family man.” He has a house in San Francisco with his family. His son has cerebral palsy. Tom Stenton is the “money man.” He’s a cutthroat businessman who leads a jet-setting, single lifestyle downtown. Together, Annie explains, they built the business to the monolith it is now.

Finally, Mae meets Dan, her supervisor. He tells her she’ll be working in Customer Experience handling customer feedback. Dan impresses upon Mae the company’s slogan “Community First,” meaning that the company prides itself on being human-centered, and not a corporate sweatshop. He urges her to attend the campus parties, a regular occurrence, especially since many workers live on-site. Mae notices that the party’s theme, “the solstice,” is hardly reflected in the actual event and that everyone’s just getting drunk. Mae is approached by an awkward young man named Francis who tries to impress her but fails. Tired but exhilarated, Mae returns home to her dingy apartment on the outskirts of town.

Analysis: Book I, Part 1

Mae Holland is typical of many young people just out of college in the 21st century in America: She’s looking to land a job at a reputable company to “make something” of herself and become an “adult.” Mae comes from a middle-class background, and she is self-conscious about her socioeconomic status, especially in comparison to her friend Annie, whose family can be traced back to the Mayflower. When Mae can only land a job at a utility company back home after college, she becomes anxious and resentful, highlighting the way young people equate a job with an identity, and perhaps more troubling, feel a sense of entitlement after earning a college degree. When Mae lands a job at the Circle, she feels her years at college can be vindicated, and she’s finally earned the pride of her parents. Like many young people, she equates economic and personal success with a college degree and an illustrious job, an idea that Eggers begins to erode over the novel.

Eggers makes a thinly-veiled connection between the Circle and big tech companies like Google and Apple and the off-beat culture of Silicon Valley, California, America’s major tech hub. From the outlandish, pagan-themed parties, on-site dormitories, and glass-filled buildings, Eggers models the Circle on big tech culture, which prizes innovation and breaks down old corporate models. Egger pokes fun at this culture a bit, as Mae attends events called “Solstice” which have nothing to do with the astronomical event, or the centuries-long traditions of paganism, signaling tech’s fumbling attempt to connect to nature. The fact that the offices are called a campus, and full-grown adults live in on-site dorms also points to the idea that tech culture might encourage and foster protracted adolescence well into one’s 30s and 40s, and have the potential to stunt a person’s emotional maturity.

The introduction of the three Wise Men, the leaders of the company, demonstrates the three types of power that are merged to create a tech powerhouse like the Circle. There’s the innovative mind of the founder, Ty; the progressive values of family man Bailey; and the corporate acumen of the shark, Stenton. This trinity is often the magic combination that produces a major player in the tech space. The fact that the men are called the Wise Men, a Biblical reference to the three men who visited the baby Jesus, is Eggers’ way of underscoring the religious undertones to the Circle’s mission, common in big tech, that everything can be and should be known. This progressive, utopian view will continue to play out throughout the novel.

Next section Book I, Part 2