Study Guide

A Hologram for the King Chapter 12

By Dave Eggers

Chapter 12

Alan learns that his contact at KAEC, Karim, won't be able to make their meeting that day. This is bad, bad news.
He and his crew take the shuttle back to the hotel in Jeddah. But once there, Alan has nothing to do: no company, no alcohol, and nowhere to go.
The news on TV is so depressing (BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico) that he can't take it.
He recalls Joe Trivole's lessons in selling, which have guided him through his professional life.
Using Joe's four-pronged scheme, Alan succeeded in sales. His career had been nothing but an upward arc for a long time.
After seeing more depressing news (last manned shuttle flight for NASA), Alan calls his dad.
This doesn't cheer him up, since Papa Ron seems to show his love by fighting with Alan.
We get the sense that Dad's a Baby Boomer who benefitted from all the good things in business (unions, pensions, U.S. manufacturing jobs) before everything collapsed.
He can't understand Alan's failures or point-of-view. He certainly can't understand why Alan helped Schwinn to move jobs overseas.
To no one's surprise, the phone convo between dad and son doesn't go well. Ron insists on poking Alan's tender spots: Did he know that a new bridge in California is being made in China?
Ron directly blames all shifting of jobs overseas on Alan.
Alan hangs up on his ranting father.