I Who Have Never Known Men

I Who Have Never Known Men

1995 • 208 pages

Ratings219

Average rating4.3

15

A novel that flourishes in its scarcity. Both in plot and in the style of the prose. The questions heap up and little, if anything, is answered. We are forced to imagine what a world would be like without men - but only after men (we presume) have destroyed all that we have known.

I loved the way this story forced me to reckon with absurdity. The narrator is, in some ways, an caricature of ourselves: one who knowns little to nothing of the world, who has provided no reasons for their existence or any other, but who is bound to the great Us.

There is great hope here, despite how bleak things seem, despite the certainty that nothing will be found. A hope that is resigned, reticent, tenacious, moving.

May 19, 2025