I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

*spoilers ahead*

I Who Have Never Known Men is a fiction book, translated into English by Ros Schwartz with an introduction by Sophie Mackintosh. It is told by our unnamed narrator about her and 39 other women who live deep underground imprisoned by a cage. They are watched over by guards and have no memory of how they got there with no notion of time and only vague recollections of their lives before. They have no answers about why they are there or their fate ahead of them.

A young girl, the 40th prisoner, is our narrator. She is a lonely girl, the outcast in the corner but soon shows herself to be instrumental in the escape of others and in the survival of the strange world that awaits them. I expected that all the women would bond together due to their shared experiences, but age seems to divide them. When the narrator tries to get information out of the other women about life, they dismiss her as they see no use in telling her things and don’t want to waste energy.

Despite being a short book, there are lengthy chapters which made the pacing odd as there were no natural breaks in the story. However, it was interesting to read from the perspective of the youngest girl who doesn’t remember life before being captured when she then starts to explore life again. It’s easy to forget what you take for granted and life’s simple pleasures, and the book is great at reminding the reader of this. For example, the narrator has an attraction to the young guard but never gains his attention. However, this plot line does not go anywhere, and we don’t see much from that guard in the rest of the book.

Whilst this is not a fast-paced, action-filled book it was quite hard-hitting to read. This book presents many questions, so many that even when the plot became uneventful, I continued reading hoping for the questions to have answers. Unfortunately, whilst the book is written well, I was disappointed plot-wise. Around halfway through the book became predictable and any hope for the characters in the plot was lost, making it quite frustrating to read. The book aims to be thought-provoking, deliberately philosophical and metaphorical but it did not have the plot to support the different theories.

This book taps into the dystopian/science-fiction era but we are left with zero answers to the world in which the characters are living. The fact it was repetitive and lacked direction was even more concentrated as it was such a short book. I also found the ending quite predictable and depressing. Nonetheless, whilst this isn’t my kind of book, I am glad I gave it a go.

2/5 stars