Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin

 Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin was originally written in Spanish and has been translated to English by Megan McDowell. 

I took to describing this book as a Black Mirror episode, all about how technology is used to uncover the darkness in humanity.  In this world, "kentukis," adorable mechanical animals that have wheels for feet and cameras for eyes, have taken the world by storm. Owners of kentukis (the "keepers") have a creature following them everywhere they go, but the crucial piece is that people can be the kentuki (the "dwellers"), too, watching what the owners do and controlling the movements of the kentuki.

Each chapter in the novel follows a different kentuki in a different location around the globe. In each scenario, you follow the keepers and the dwellers, trying to figure out why they have chosen to participate in this strange psychological experiment, and watching as their lives slowly come undone.  

It's interesting to see this thought experiment, especially in light of  how much of this is already going on in the world.  My husband and I had a discussion about Velveeta recently - much of it focused on how neither of us has knowingly consumed it - and the next day there were ads everywhere I went online about that particular product. I know that they say our phones are not listening to us, but I don't know how that could have happened without some degree of spying.  More importantly and more related to the book, there are people who have smart devices like Echo and Alexa in their homes. They've agreed to allow this intrusion.  At what point is it okay to have a transcript of conversations in your home that could be read by others and at what point do we actually allow others to see and hear what's going on in our homes? 

I thought this book was vaguely predictable, though. None of the scenarios made me gasp or felt surprising.  If you had given me the basic set-up of the book before I read it, this is what I think I would have found. I don't want to give too much away in case you decide you want to read the book and maybe you would be surprised, but there was no fucking a pig happening here.  I think I would still recommend it because the premise is interesting and if we're living in a surveillance state, we might as well be thoughtful about it, right?