They are all set to meet with the king to demonstrate the company’s holographic conferencing capability. It was mostly inconsistencies. It is 2010, and Alan Clay is waiting. Annihilation: A Story of the Armenian Genocide. He lives in Northern California with his family. ― Dave Eggers, A Hologram for the King. This could be his last chance to pay off his debts and provide for his daughter's education. Until it didn't.”, “Live long enough and you'll disappoint everyone. People think you're able to help them and usually you can't. No more crazy bitch ex-wives, no more weird medical issues that strike at their sense of mortality, no more managing to bang (poorly) hotter younger ladies (who are also, of course, crazy) even during their downward spiral, no more disconnect with their flighty and disappointed children, no more ra. He makes career changes to profit from the rapid global economic shifts--from saleman, to corporate manager to downsizer. The book includes details on the decline of manufacturing in the USA,; the money markets; and a range of perspectives on Saudi society. He needs to really earn that final commission that is going to be the answer to all his problems. Is it well written? )...........and the Kings decision? He's arrived in Jeddah for the chance of a lifetime, to revive a career that has seen much better times. Yes. In A Hologram for the King, Dave Eggers takes us around the world to show how one man fights to hold himself and his splintering family together in the face of the global economy’s gale-force winds. But eventually, Eggers was successful in evoking my sympathy, even a feeling of tenderness. He makes career changes to profit from the rapid global economic shifts--from saleman, to corporate manager to downsizer. Ha! Welcome back. This man will be married, and his wife (or wives) may be giving him hell to such an extent that foreign intervention may be solicited for the blessed relief of all three (or more) parties. Start by marking “A Hologram for the King” as Want to Read: Error rating book. And so it becomes a process of choosing the one or two people you try hardest not to disappoint. I read the screenplay to the movie he wrote and was so offended by the stage directions, I broke up with him forever in my mind. Dave 4 Prez. . In a rising Saudi Arabian city, far from weary, recession-scarred America, a struggling businessman pursues a last-ditch attempt to stave off foreclosure, pay his daughter's college tuition, and finally do something great. Just a little at first, but each morning he disappears a little more. “A Hologram for the King is an outstanding achievement in Eggers’s already impressive career, and an essential read.” — San Francisco Chronicle “[A] clear, supremely readable parable of America in the global economy that is haunting, beautifully shaped, and sad. Can't really bring it to 4 stars... Conscientious moralist and all-round Good Egg(er) Dave Eggers in another era might be literary kryptonite. Is it well written? The World Playoff: Climate Change, a game for some, The Garden of Forgotten Dreams: A Contemporary Women's Fiction Novel, The Weaver's Legacy: A historical epic novel of the Irish in the American West. The Perfect Cookie: Your Ultimate Guide to Foolproof Cookies, Brownies & Bars (Perf... To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Alan is so deluded, as are we all. Loved the snorkeling frolic and didn't really mind the end (won't give away whether the King comes or not). A hint of Dave Egger’s ambitious theme can be gleaned right from the title. Dave Eggers Goes to Saudi Arabia and Finds a Desert, I bought a pristine trade paperback copy of. Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products. by McSweeney's. You get the sense that Eggers thought he might be writing a "big" novel here, one which tackles philosophical and topical issues about the place of America in the 21st century world, the conflict of perception vs reality of Saudia Arabai seen through Western eyes, the rise of China as a world power, crisis of identity etc. Vintage; First Paperback Edition (June 4, 2013). New from Dave Eggers, National Book Award finalist A Hologram for the King. In A Hologram for the King, Dave Eggers takes us around the world to show how one man fights to hold himself and his splintering family together in the face of the global economy's gale-force winds. How can she survive when everyone around her is dying? With Tom Hanks, Omar Elba, Sarita Choudhury, Ben Whishaw. Update: This is an old review ... almost 4 years old. He is the proprietor of a small, failing consulting firm run from his home in the U.S., but has recently been staked by Reliant, the largest IT supplier in the world, to sell a contract to King Abdullah. 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? Top subscription boxes – right to your door, If Olaya Street Could Talk -- Saudi Arabia: The Heartland of Oil and Islam, © 1996-2020, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. Buy it, and give yourself a treat. I did! Authors don't try to connect to actors. But it hasn't worked for him. The cover is made to look like a hand-carved wooden cover on a book you might find in a Middle Eastern bazaar. This is his last hurrah, a chance to turn his life from sad and broke to flush and secure, if he and his young team from Reliant can pitch this hologram presentation to the King and win an IT contract. You sense the project is doomed from the start. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 2, 2013. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, Published Previous page of related Sponsored Products, "Thrilling, suspenseful and unforgettable." Alan, individualist and good capitalist, finds himself at middle-age being pushed aside. He is also a shallow literary construction whose plight is never real, despite Egger's dogged effort to tie him to the very real decline in American manufacturing. Never judge a book by its cover. I will continue to read this charming man even when his novels reach the apogee of finger-wagging let’s-all-be-kind-together liberalism and cool-dude whimsicality as long as this bepermed nicemeister continues to demonstrate exquisite Human Being skills and writes more illuminating novels pitched at the exact reading level for the masses to absorb on the off-chance some of them might look outwith their navels and give a flying patootie about the rest of the world. The story opens with the simple declaration that a man named Alan Clay is in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Local communities have since opened sister 826 centers in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Ann Arbor, Seattle, Boston and Washington, DC, and similar centers now exist in London (the Ministry of Stories), Dublin (Fighting Words) and in Copenhagen, Stockholm, Melbourne, and many other cities. 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. The Captain and the Glory: An Entertainment. It certainly offers an extremeley well written gipping story about the place of an individual lost in a globalised world. Eggers is the founder and editor of McSweeney’s, an independent publishing house based in San Francisco that produces a quarterly journal, a monthly magazine, The Believer, and an oral history series, Voice of Witness. Please try again. Goodreads needs a rating for "Meh" because that's pretty much my reaction to it. Clay is 54, divorced, in debt, and worried about a growth on his neck. Yes. A modern day mother with secret yearnings must overcome unexpected betrayal. Refresh and try again. too, and even though A Hologram for the King is completely different, I enjoyed it even more. Yes. But you are swiftly drawn into Alan's diminishing, increasingly hopeless world, which is the world of America's loss of prestige in the global business area - brought about by men like Aan, who shipped manufacturing out to China and came to regret it. This taut, richly layered, and elegiac novel is a powerful evocation of our contemporary moment -- and a moving story of how we got here. Loved the inclusion of nonfictional bits like about Schwinn's fall and the blast-resistant glass for the Freedom Tower made in China. In October 2012, the novel was announced as a finalist for the National Book Award. After viewing product detail pages, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. Picture Information. His best bet, apparently, is to befriend a Saudi homosexual. This book totally scrubs that away. So that's what I was expecting here but I read it anyway, and it actually turned out to be a pretty darn good novel. 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. Seriously: a French Movie from the '70s, one of those where nothing happens, and actors are trying to convey despair in thousand of different ways, but all they can express is boredom. Loved the inclusion of nonfictional bits like about Schwinn's fall and the blast-resistant glass for the Freedom Tower made in China. But the writing is first class, and the characterisation is just so polished. He's hired as a consu. Clay's mid-life disconnection with the world around him is highlighted and reflected by the KSA setting, and Eggers conjures up a deliciously boring and ridiculous world for poor Clay to inhabit. In. When the novel opens he's on the edge of economic collapse, but still dreaming of catching the brass ring. Dave Eggers is an excellent writer but he is certainly capable of throwing out some duds. Clay's romantic interlude for instance, is a jewel. He is becoming increasingly aware of his shortcomings, though he remains optimistic. — HBC Book Reviews, If Tom Waits and Kafka got together and had a litter of puppies you'd get Dog Logic - a funny, inflammatory, and award-winning romp. This book is about a character slowly imploding into his own manias. It also analyzes reviews to verify trustworthiness. 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. I have followed Dave Eggers' writing on and off over the years - I especially enjoyed A Hearbreakig Work - and decided to read this because it's set in Saudi Arabia, a country which I am keen to visit, fictionally. McSweeney’s also publishes Voice of Witness, a nonprofit book series that uses oral history to illuminate human rights crises around the world. You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition. Between 3 and 4. T. Meet Alan Clay, an American salesman in his mid-fifties. The Cinquefoil Connection recounts Jonathan McClendon’s fall into the abyss of political treachery, breach of faith, cutthroat politics. It was adapted as a film of the same name, released in 2016 and starring Tom Hanks and Sarita Choudhury. Alan's background making bicycles in the US, that then get outsourced to China blah blah blah got a little predictable. He's hired as a consultant by an IT company and sent to Saudia Arabia to sell a innovative new communication system (a hologram) to King Abdullah who is supposed to be building a state-of-the art economic development zone (See Dubai) in the desert. 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. And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever?, The Circle and A Hologram for the King, which was a finalist for the 2012 National Book Award. Unable to add item to List. With hints of parable, Eggers explores a modern-day quandary in both national and personal identity explored through mid-life crisis and cultural clashes. Willy drove his car into a tree, Alan decides there is nothing left for him in America. Like “They were so in love with the world, and so disappointed in every aspect of it.” Like “Maybe he was more than the sum of his broken parts.” ― Dave Eggers, A Hologram for the King. A light read. A Hologram for the King proves that Eggers' forte is non-fiction (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and Zeitoun) - or, at least, fiction based on non-fictional events (What Is the What). In his flashbacks we learn how instrumental Alan was in outsourcing manufacturing bicycles and realizes to his horror that he is next. (Prices may vary for AK and HI.). Alan, individualist and good capitalist, finds himself at middle-age being pushed aside. The first edition of the novel was published in June 2012, and was written by Dave Eggers. It proved itself worthy pretty damned quick. A Hologram for the King takes us around the world to show how one man fights to hold himself and his splintering family together in the face of the global economy’s gale-force winds. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Select the department you want to search in, Or get 4-5 business-day shipping on this item for $5.99 Please try your request again later. Learn more about the program. June 19th 2012 Unfortunately, whenever Eggers tries to concoct a compelling novel, he falls flat. Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2013. A Hologram for the King: ... A native of Chicago, Eggers now lives in Northern California with his wife and two children. 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 GODOT THING HERE. Conscientious moralist and all-round Good Egg(er) Dave Eggers in another era might be literary kryptonite. He is in debt, his credit is bad, and his career is in decline. 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. His daughter and ex-wife are not getting along. 16 likes. I was off to a very enjoyable start with this book. The only problem is that the king is repeatedly unavailable, and the team is setup in a tent with limited wi-fi and no food. 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. The cover caught me, the slim New Orleans connection reeled me in. Big mistake. Image not available. By Dave Eggers. In A HOLOGRAM FOR THE KING, sales guy Alan Clay is in Saudi Arabia in 2010 and trying to win an IT contract for a large American corporation. Dave Eggers is the author of six previous books, including Zeitoun, winner of the American Book Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. 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