A hologram for the king

The story of a white, middle aged, upper middle class business man who has fallen on hard times due in large part to the economic policies that he (and people like him) were responsible for. He is lost and drifting and searching for meaning. Now he's in Saudi Arabia for a business trip of uncertain duration, during which he is supposed to meet the King at an undetermined time. And although he is a stranger in a strange land, he just might be beginning to find meaning-- and himself -- as he experiences life in this unfamiliar, alien place.

The good:
1. Dave Eggers is an engaging writer. This is a book about melancholy and self-doubt that also manages to be quite funny at times.

2. The book is peppered with interesting, though one-dimensional, characters who integrate the protagonist into Saudi life.

3. The main character is the "Everyman" of mid-late 20th century literature (think Philip Roth and John Updike) that I loathe: he's not an actor but rather is acted upon; blind to his abundant privilege, he believes the world is out to get him; and he just can't figure out why things aren't going his way. (See gripe #1.) But two things keep this from being excessively problematic for me: first, he's contrasted with a few younger people who are aware of his irrelevance (from his perspective they're buffoons, but from the reader's perspective they are symbols of the contemporary workforce), and second, he reaches a sort of peace with his circumstances.

The bad:
does this story-- "Everyman" searches for self--really need to be told again?

Usually I'll let a book simmer in my head for a few hours to a couple of days before I handle a review on it, but I finished this one about 5 minutes ago. Calling it 3 stars and I'm unlikely to need to revise.

A lot happens in A Hologram for the King. But not much happens in a Hologram for a King. As its protagonist, Alan Clay, struggles to be a man of consequence there's a tremendous amount of pondering and assessment. As most of the substance of the novel is the firing of synapses, triggered by small events, the novel can touch on pretty heavy late-middle-aged themes. The floundering (and foundering) fatherhood theme is personally relevant. But in the mix you'll also find thoughts on globalism, capitalism, mortality, friendship, and love (or, at least, sex).

Despite all the heavy thinking and even some strong emotional content, the novel is all loose strings. It's as if Eggers made a list of 8 topics on which to ruminate and stuffed them in the head of a character to play out over the space of a few weeks. Just throw a dart at the timeline of his life and watch these thoughts naturally flow in response to events and when time is up, we'll stop reading.

I'm reminded a bit of Teju Cole's Open City, which seemed arc-less and ponderous, but in which something is actually revealed. Cole's novel becomes a story of consequence as a result. Eggers' story of a character striving to be a man of consequence falls short for the man and the novel.