In the novel written by Dave Eggers titled “A Hologram For The King,” Eggers writes about an American businessman by the name Alan Clay. Alan travels from Boston to Saudi Arabia to the city of KAEC, in hopes of landing a contract with the King. Alan’s primary concern is his daughter’s college education. However, he has acquired a significant amount of debt through the declining of manufacturing in the United States. The novel portrays Alan as somewhat of a man who’s life seems to be consistently filled with poor decision making, and placed in awkward predicaments. This goes on throughout the story as we take a look into the life of Alan Clay.
From his home in suburban Boston, Alan is instructed by his boss at Reliant to travel to Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Economic City, to sell IT to them for the undeveloped city in the midst of nowhere. Alan confidently tells his boss that he will not come back empty-handed, however, to accomplish this will take more than Alan had ever expected. Alan arrives in Jeddah to meet his team from Reliant. Alan missed the shuttle to King Abdullah Economic City, so a driver is arranged to pick him up at the hotel. The young driver named Yousef introduces himself as savior, driver, hero, jokingly to Alan writes Eggers. Yousef is not as optimistic as Alan about the future of King Abdullah Economic City and dismisses the idea. Once they arrive, Alan finds three of his team members, Brad, Rachelle, and Cayley, from Reliant with little to do in a tent which is setup for their IT presentation. This leads Alan to search for answers, leading him to discover that the King will not be arriving that day. Alan does, however, meet a woman named Hanne who at one point offers him some moonshine that she passes of as olive oil due to the restrictions on alcohol in the country, to ease Alan’s discomfort from spraining his ankle, as well as lack of sleep. Upon returning to his hotel, Alan discove...