I Who Have Never Known Men

Unsettling, but superb. I kept hoping that we would get some answers, but the book makes you sit with the realization that we aren’t really in control of anything and often never get answers to our own mysteries and questions. I am really surprised this book hasn't gotten more attention before now.

I love when a book that is not the type of book I would usually enjoy manages to surprise me. Going into this book, if you had told me that there is basically no plot, the mystery is never solved, and there were barely scenes let alone chapters, I absolutely would have assumed I would be cynically dragging my feet through the book, unable to connect and probably complaining a bit. Instead, I found myself nearly immediately clicking with the structure and voice of the story, and detaching from any subconscious expectations for where it would take me.

If my 4am existential crises were put to paper in a creative, yet comprehensible, fashion, I'd imagine it would end up looking something like this – and in one of those 4am moments, when I write things down that I know no one will ever read, I will definitely think of this book.

The most beautifully written ending I have ever witnessed. The prose is immaculate, it's described as ‘cool water' in the introduction, and I agree. It has a smooth, breezy, calm, collected flow to it until the very end when Jacqueline Harpman starts firing on all cylinders. The writing and passion are dialed up to a whole new level and pure emotion emanates from deep within the heart. She saved the best for the last and you feel the ignition, nothing is held back. It's fiery, magnificent and hauntingly poetic. It felt personal, like she did not want to go down without a fight. That as this bleak tale set in a bleak world draws to its eventual end and the spark starts to fizzle out, some aftershocks must be left that will continue to reverberate for years to come.

Perhaps never to go down without a fight is what this book is about, at least that is what I will take away from it. No matter if the world is stripped away of all its familiar warmth and comfort and be basically rendered sterile, we can find a way to look death right in the eye and exhibit beauty even in the direst of circumstances.