????許多小說家都把筆觸伸向了商業界，他們的作品有的荒誕離奇，有的貼近真實。其中最出名的有以下幾位：首先是喬納森?迪和亞當?哈斯雷特，他們的作品從不同的角度描寫了金融危機。去年，海倫?德懷特的《避雷針》（Lightning Rods）以極為認真可信的搞笑筆法描寫了一個人是怎樣把一個齷齪的念頭變成現實的——也就是把辦公室性服務變成一項合法的全國性業務。羅賓?斯隆的作品《半影先生的24小時書屋》（Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore ）描寫了一家在硅谷真實存在的書店背后的故事。去年，加布利埃爾?羅斯的處女作《未知》（The Unknowns）則描寫了一名年輕企業家在以幾億美金的價格賣掉自己的公司之后所經歷的一段迷茫時期。

????作家戴夫?艾格斯是麥克斯威尼出版社（McSweeney's）的創始人（有些人認為他的作品矯飾過重，但也有不少人非常喜歡他的作品。從大多數標準看，他都是一個成功的作家。）最近他也加入了戲筆商界的行列。之前他有兩部書都圍繞著“目的”這個主題。【《什么是什么》（What is the What）一書描寫了一個虛構的蘇丹難民瓦倫蒂諾?阿扎克?鄧命運多舛的一生，《澤圖恩》（Zeitoun ）則講述了一個家庭在卡特里娜颶風中的掙扎。】寫完這兩部書后，他又連續創作了兩部描寫美國商界的小說。2012年的小說《王者的全像》（A Hologram for the King）用又沒得筆觸描寫了一個身心俱疲的美國銷售員在經濟危機的打擊下，遠赴沙特阿拉伯去談一筆無線技術業務的大生意。這本書的語言代表了艾格斯本人寫作風格的轉型。這本書的語言少了幾分閑散和異想天開，多了幾分凝練、實用和簡潔，獲得了很好的反響。

????When novelists point their pens at the business world, the results—specifically the plausibility—vary. Some of the more successful in the past few years have included Jonathan Dee and Adam Haslett, whose novels took on the financial crisis from different angles. Last year, Helen DeWitt's Lightning Rods depicted, with surprisingly believable hilarity, a man turning his sordid idea for in-office sex escorts into a legitimate national business; Robin Sloan's Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore depicted the secrets behind a brick-and-mortar book shop in the heart of Silicon Valley. And this year, The Unknowns, a terrific debut novel by Gabriel Roth, focused on a young tech entrepreneur's failed romance during an aimless period after selling his company for millions of dollars.

????Dave Eggers, father of the publishing house McSweeney's (twee and cutesy to some, beloved and celebrated by others, but by most measures a true San Francisco success), these days falls among the "biz curious" writerly ranks. After two books centered on a "cause" (What is the What was a fictionalized biography of Valentino Achak Deng, a Sudanese refugee; Zeitoun reported one family's ordeal during Hurricane Katrina) he has put out two consecutive books concerned with corporate America. The 2012 novel A Hologram for the King beautifully imagined a weary, frustrated American salesman, bruised by the downturn, traveling to Saudi Arabia to land a big wireless technologies deal. The language, in that book, represented a bit of a turn for Eggers: less meandering and whimsical, more terse, utilitarian and clean. It worked wonderfully.

????艾格斯于本月出版的新書《圓》（The Circle）也是一本以美國商界為背景的小說，但它卻沒有《王者的全像》的美感與寫實。書名“圓”來自書中作者描寫的那家名叫The Circle的公司，它也是書中唯一一家重要的公司。它的規模極為龐大，是一家年輕、但實力極其雄厚的科技企業，在硅谷有一片占地極大的總部。是不是覺得似曾相識？在本書的發布會上，有記者問艾格斯：“本書是不是影射了谷歌（Google）、Facebook或其他哪家特定的公司？”艾格斯答道：“不，不是。”不過書上的The Circle公司有三個聯合創始人：湯姆、艾蒙、泰，讓人很難不聯想到谷歌的“三巨頭”拉里、謝爾蓋和董事長施密特。The Circle的餐廳叫做“玻璃餐館”，一共有9層，它的墻和地板都是用玻璃做的。一眼看去，就好像“上百人飄在空中吃飯”一樣。這家公司的核心員工被稱做“四十人幫”，也是公司最重要的四十名員工，只有他們有權接觸公司的核心計劃和數據。

????延伸閱讀：?《杰弗里?薩克斯非洲扶貧試驗破產之謎》

????不管The Circle公司是否讓你想起了谷歌、Facebook或其他哪家公司，反正在看過了本書的基本設置后，后面的故事已經很難找到任何一家真實企業的影子了，不過這也是它最大的問題之一。艾格斯顯然是要把這本書寫成一本反烏托邦的諷刺作品，不過這個目標可以說是失敗了。因為書中的故事實在是太過牽強和夸張，是一本能讓人嗤之以鼻、而不是興奮顫抖的書。

????小說的主人公梅?霍蘭德第一天走進公司的時候還是一個天真爛漫、不諳世事的少女，急于獲得別人的認可。她也是我們看這家公司的一扇窗口。但她很快成了長官意志的犧牲品，漸漸變得讓讀者難以認同，甚至很難喜歡上她。隨著她抓住每個機會一步步往上爬，她也一步步被洗腦，絲毫不能激起人們的同情。

????The writing style of his new novel The Circle, out this month, is the same, but this book lacks the grace, charm and realism of Hologram. The novel takes its name from a fictional company: The Circle ("the only company that really mattered at all") is a gargantuan, young-but-powerful tech corporation on a giant, sprawling campus in Silicon Valley. Sound familiar? In a prepared Q&A on the press release that went around with the book, Eggers is asked coyly, "Is this book about Google (GOOG) or Facebook (FB) or any particular company?" He responds, "No, no." And yet The Circle has three cofounders: Tom, Eamon, and Ty (hard not to think of Larry, Sergey and chairman Schmidt). Its cafeteria is called "the glass eatery," a space "designed such that diners ate at nine different levels, all of the floors and walls glass. At first glance, it looked like a hundred people were eating in mid-air." Its most revered staffers are the "Gang of 40," which comprises "the forty most crucial minds at the company… privy to its most secret plans and data."

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????Regardless of whether The Circle reminds you more of Google, Facebook, or a different company, after we get through the recognizable early descriptions of the setting, the company no longer resembles any organization that exists or could ever conceivably exist right now. And that's one of its biggest problems. Eggers clearly means The Circle to be a blistering, dystopian satire, but that fails because what happens is so absurdly far-fetched and over the top. It is a book that will make you scoff, not tremble.

????The Circle's protagonist Mae Holland arrives at the company on her first day bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, eager to please. She is our window into the company. But she so swiftly falls prey to the founders' whims that it's impossible to identify with her or even like her. There is no pathos to be found in what happens to her since she leaps at every opportunity for further brainwashing.