Many younger Saudis, with plenty of money and little to do, find affluence boring and some seek dangerous thrills. 'Its people were forced into the roles of teenagers hiding their vices and proclivities from a shadowy army of parents.' One of the strengths of this novel is the vividness of the Saudi Arabian characters, many of whom are more open to Western culture than officially allowed. He finds friendship and maybe love in the desert kingdom. Clay is a man with a lot of issues.īut not all is forlorn.

Plus he's got a growth on his neck that might be cancerous. His daughter still loves him but she's also becoming disappointed in him. His father, an old union man, mocks him for being an anti-American loser. His wife left him long ago, thinking he'd become a human of little consequence. Now Clay is a consultant, in his case a euphemism for mostly unemployed. Why didn't I see it coming? More efficient without me, too.

More efficient without American workers, period, cut em out. More efficient without the unions, cut em out. We thought it would be efficient and it was the opposite. We'd tossed out a hundred years of expertise.

We were getting squeezed by the unions in Chicago and we decided to move it all to Mississippi, where we wouldn't be bothered by any organizing. In 'A Hologram for the King,' Eggers returns to his strength: quick-to-the-point fiction.Ĭlay was once an ace executive at a bicycle company but, like a lot of American manufacturers, the company saw everything go wrong in the late 20th century.

A hologram for the king book review