Review: The Every, Dave Eggers
Dave Eggers is the powerhouse behind McSweeney’s magazine and publishing house, 12 novels, three works of non-fiction and the memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.
His 2013 satire The Circle, about (essentially) Google, was filmed starring Emma Watson and Tom Hanks. Now, The Every (2021) explores a future in which The Circle merges with an e-commerce company nicknamed 'the jungle'. This mega-company caters to the public's every need, as loved as it is dangerous.
The Every, more companion than sequel, shifts The Circle's key characters to peripheral roles, so no need to read The Circle to read this; you can come to it fresh or use the movie as primer, like I did.
The Every's main character, Delaney, saw The Every's products tear apart her childhood and her family's business. Her deep hatred of the company inspires her to apply for an entry-level job there, meaning to tear the place down from the inside. Ideas are valuable currency at The Every, and the best way she can think of is to suggest, during her introductory rotations through numerous departments, ideas for new apps that will further erode users' privacy and freedom of choice in ever-more outrageous and unacceptable ways. Or so she thinks – but not only does the company love and adopt her pitches, but the public she thought would be shocked into revolting embrace them too. The Every's control only deepens, until Delaney is forced into a last-ditch gamble with her final and most diabolical idea.
At its best, this monumental novel is brilliantly funny and boundlessly intelligent, structured in a series of inventive and lacerating set pieces in each humanity-destroying department. It awoke in me the chilling recognition and dread the best dystopian novels do.
But it is far too long, despite poking fun at this very fact within the text. The set pieces are too numerous, bogging down the plot. Delaney's character and backstory are overly neat, too weak to sustain the sheer length and complexity of her "rotations", which submerge a suspense that begins strongly only to flounder later.
It is, nevertheless, my standout read of 2022 so far, the most vivid and pioneering, the one I most want to share and discuss. Such books are rare. So if you’ve read it, or you’re now going to, let me know what you think!