A Hologram For A King by Dave Eggers
An American man in his mid-fifties named Alan Clay goes to Saudi Arabia to sell IT services to the King for the new city he is building. It's a place likened to Dubai--a sprawling metropolis on the edge of the desert.
It's essential that Alan make this sale because he has to dig himself out of owing money to people and paying for his daughter's next year of college. He has to get his life back on track. There's simply no other option.
The problem is that Alan sees himself as a failure, and expects other people to do the same. Going to Saudi Arabia for weeks on end means he's in a relentlessly boring place where inspiration lurks nowhere, and there is nothing to do as he and his team wait for the king's arrival.
I was surprised to find the novel compelling because I never grew sympathy for Alan. I just wanted to know what the hell was going to happen next in this mess that was his life. I didn't expect things to turn around for him but I was curious to see if he might somehow stumble into success.
I admire Eggers for weaving the history of the Schwinn bicycle company into this story. Fascinating stuff.
General consensus: I'm not sure what I just read. It could have been quite deep or a complete waste of time...but I'm suspecting it was the former because there was this odd melding of the environment and who Alan was. In a lot of ways, Alan was the desert that was being described in the book by the Saudis. Alan was the city the king was building. I have a feeling this was a profound read. The only metric in which to know it is to see over time how it affects me.
No comments:
Post a Comment