A Hologram for the King

Last updated
A Hologram for the King
A Hologram for the King - book cover.jpg
Hardcover edition
Author Dave Eggers
Cover artist Jessica Hische [1]
LanguageEnglish
Publisher McSweeney's
Publication date
June 2012
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
Pages312 pp (first edition, hardcover)
ISBN 193636574X (first edition, hardcover)

A Hologram for the King is a 2012 American novel written by Dave Eggers. In October 2012, the novel was announced as a finalist for the National Book Award. [2]

Contents

It was adapted as a film of the same name, released in 2016 and starring Tom Hanks and Sarita Choudhury.

Plot

The novel tells the story of a washed-up, desperate American salesman, Alan Clay, who travels to Saudi Arabia to secure the IT contract from the royal government for the King Abdullah Economic City, a massive new complex being built in the middle of the desert.

Style

Michiko Kakutani describes the novel as having a "Hemingwayesque voice" with some of the main characters' adventures taking on a "Kafkaesque flavor". [3] The novel also makes intentional analogies to Waiting for Godot. [3]

Reception

The New York Times review of the novel by Michiko Kakutani, was generally positive, noting "he has achieved something that is more modest and equally satisfying: the writing of a comic but deeply affecting tale about one man’s travails that also provides a bright, digital snapshot of our times." [3] San Francisco Chronicle reviewer Carmela Ciuraru described the novel as "an extraordinary work of timely and provocative themes, including the decline of American manufacturing, the sufferings of the middle class and the collapse of the global economy." [4]

Awards

Film adaptation

A film adaptation by the same name was released in 2016. German filmmaker Tom Tykwer wrote and directed the film, starring Tom Hanks, Tom Skerritt and Sarita Choudhury. Playtone and X-Filme Creative Pool produced it. [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dave Eggers</span> American writer, editor, and publisher (born 1970)

Dave Eggers is an American writer, editor, and publisher. He wrote the 2000 best-selling memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Eggers is also the founder of Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, a literary journal; a co-founder of the literacy project 826 Valencia, co-founder of The Hawkins Project, and the human rights nonprofit Voice of Witness; and the founder of ScholarMatch, a program that matches donors with students needing funds for college tuition. His writing has appeared in several magazines, including The New Yorker, Esquire, and The New York Times Magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Tykwer</span> German film director

Tom Tykwer is a German film director, producer, screenwriter, and composer. He is best known internationally for directing the thriller films Run Lola Run (1998), Heaven (2002), Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006), and The International (2009). He collaborated with The Wachowskis as co-director for the science fiction film Cloud Atlas (2012) and the Netflix series Sense8 (2015–2018), and worked on the score for Lana Wachowski's The Matrix Resurrections (2021). Tykwer is also well known as the co-creator of the internationally acclaimed German television series Babylon Berlin (2017–).

<i>The Ghost Writer</i> 1979 novel by Philip Roth

The Ghost Writer is a 1979 novel by the American author Philip Roth. It is the first of Roth's novels narrated by Nathan Zuckerman, one of the author's putative fictional alter egos, and constitutes the first book in his Zuckerman Bound trilogy. The novel touches on themes common to many Roth works, including identity, the responsibilities of authors to their subjects, and the condition of Jews in America. Parts of the novel are a reprise of The Diary of Anne Frank.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Phillips</span> American novelist

Arthur Phillips is an American novelist. His books include Prague (2002), The Egyptologist (2004), Angelica (2007), The Song Is You (2009), The Tragedy of Arthur (2011), and The King at the Edge of the World (2020).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarita Choudhury</span> British actress (born 1966)

Sarita Catherine Louise Choudhury is a British actress. She made her screen debut starring in the romantic drama film Mississippi Masala (1991). She later appeared in American and international film productions, including A Perfect Murder (1998), Restless (1998), She Hate Me (2004), The War Within (2005), Lady in the Water (2006), Midnight's Children (2012), The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014) and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (2015), A Hologram for the King (2016), and The Green Knight (2021).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adam Haslett</span> American writer and journalist (born 1970)

Adam Haslett is an American fiction writer and journalist. His debut short story collection, You Are Not a Stranger Here, and his second novel, Imagine Me Gone, were both finalists for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. He has been awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the American Academy in Berlin. In 2017, he won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

Aimee Phan is an American novelist and educator, of Vietnamese descent. She teaches at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, California.

Elizabeth Tallent is an American fiction writer, academic, and essayist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adam Johnson (writer)</span> American novelist and short story writer (born 1967)

Adam Johnson is an American novelist and short story writer. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his 2012 novel, The Orphan Master's Son, and the National Book Award for his 2015 story collection Fortune Smiles. He is also a professor of English at Stanford University with a focus on creative writing.

<i>CivilWarLand in Bad Decline</i> Collection of George Saunders short stories published 1992-1995

CivilWarLand in Bad Decline is a book of short stories and a novella by the American writer George Saunders. Published in 1996, it was Saunders's first book. Many of the stories initially appeared in different forms in various magazines, including Kenyon Review, Harper's, The New Yorker and Quarterly West. The collection was listed as a Notable Book of 1996 by The New York Times, as well as a finalist for the 1996 PEN/Hemingway Award.

Carol Anshaw is an American novelist and short story writer. Publishing Triangle named her debut novel, Aquamarine, one of "The Triangle's 100 Best" gay and lesbian novels of the 1990s. Four of her books have been finalists for the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction, and Lucky in the Corner won the 2003 Ferro-Grumley Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dana Spiotta</span> American novelist (born 1966)

Dana Spiotta is an American author. She was a recipient of the Rome Prize in Literature, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the John Updike Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin Powers</span> American novelist (born 1980)

Kevin Powers is an American fiction writer, poet, and Iraq War veteran.

<i>A Hologram for the King</i> (film) 2016 film directed by Tom Tykwer

A Hologram for the King is a 2016 comedy-drama film written, directed and co-scored by Tom Tykwer, based on the 2012 novel of the same name written by Dave Eggers, and starring Tom Hanks as a washed-up corporate salesman, who goes to Saudi Arabia to propose a business deal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Wilson (editor)</span> American magazine editor and author (born 1951)

Robert S. Wilson is an American writer and retired magazine editor. From 2004 to 2022 he edited The American Scholar, the literary journal published by the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Before that he was editor of the AARP Bulletin and Preservation magazine and literary editor of Civilization magazine. Wilson has also written three biographies set in nineteenth-century America and edited a collection of essays from Preservation.

<i>Jernigan</i> (novel) 1991 novel by David Gates

Jernigan is the 1991 debut novel by David Gates. The book received widespread critical acclaim, drawing comparisons to Richard Yates, Joseph Heller, and Frederick Exley. Jernigan was a finalist for the 1992 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.

<i>Moonglow</i> (novel) Book by Michael Chabon

Moonglow is a 2016 novel by Michael Chabon. The book chronicles the life of Chabon's grandfather, a WW2 soldier, engineer and rocket enthusiast who marries a troubled Jewish survivor from France and lives a challenging, wandering life in postwar America. Chabon tells the story using a mixture of strict memoir and creative fiction writing. The narrator functions as a proxy for the author, Chabon.

Omar El Akkad is an Egyptian-Canadian novelist and journalist, whose novel What Strange Paradise was the winner of the 2021 Giller Prize.

Daniel Torday is an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. He serves as an Associate Professor and Director of Creative Writing at Bryn Mawr College.

<i>Arctic Dreams</i> 1986 nonfiction book by Barry Lopez

Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape is a 1986 nonfiction book by Barry Lopez. It won the National Book Award for Nonfiction, the Christopher Medal, a Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award, and an Oregon Book Award for literary nonfiction. It was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist.

References

  1. "Jessica Hische - A Hologram for the King". Jessica Hische. Archived from the original on 2012-07-14. Retrieved 2014-04-21.
  2. "2012 National Book Awards - National Book Foundation". www.nationalbook.org. Retrieved 2017-01-24.
  3. 1 2 3 Kakutani, Michiko (2012-06-13). "Dave Eggers's New Novel, 'A Hologram for the King'". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2017-01-24.
  4. Ciuraru, Carmela (August 14, 2012). "'A Hologram for the King,' by Dave Eggers". SFGate. Retrieved 2017-01-24.
  5. "National Book Award Finalists Announced Today". Library Journal. October 10, 2012. Archived from the original on December 6, 2012. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
  6. "Best Books of 2012 - Publishers Weekly". Publishersweekly.com. Retrieved 2017-08-23.
  7. "100 Notable Books of 2012". The New York Times. 2012-11-27. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2024-08-31.
  8. "The 10 Best Books of 2012". The New York Times. 2012-11-30. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2024-08-31.
  9. "California Book Awards - Commonwealth Club". Commonwealthclub.org. Retrieved 2017-08-23.
  10. IGO (2023-10-26). "A Hologram for the King". Dublin Literary Award. Retrieved 2024-08-31.
  11. "Tom Tykwer's Tom Hanks-Starrer 'A Hologram For The King' Finalizes Cast". deadline.com. 6 March 2014. Retrieved 7 March 2014.