The decadence of at least two societies or cultures can be seen in Dave Eggers’ new novel, where some bored Americans wait for weeks in a giant cooled tent in Saudia Arabia for the chance to display the latest innovation in conference IT to King Abdullah at the unbuilt ‘economic city’ that bears his name. Considering current sophisticated video-conferencing and other technology, how vital is it that King Abdullah Economic City (or KAEC, pronounced ‘cake’) be equipped with a hologram device that enables colleagues walking and talking in London to appear to be striding the stage near Jeddah? But perhaps something similar was said about mobile phones 20 years ago.
In any event, the King knows enough not to give the Americans’ hologram more than a few minutes of his time, when, after many false alarms and foreign sightings reported in the press, he does arrive at KAEC for a presentation before rushing away to spend the bulk of his day with the Chinese.
Eggers, known from previous books as a clear-eyed and sensitive observer of embattled civilisations (certainly including America’s), seems sure-footed for every step of this story of a broke and squeezed-out consultant, Alan Clay, who started in manufacturing (bicycles, primarily), until that fell apart in the US, and he began wandering the globe looking for his big score or commission from impatient clients like his current patron, the IT behemoth Reliant.
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