I Who Have Never Known Men
Ratings236
Average rating4.3
I think the book keeps us filled with hope of finding answers even though both the narration and events repeatedly imply there inherently aren't any.
Just like the main character, who is constantly revived by her eagerness to make a discovery, so are we. Her and us become oneness.
The book is unlike anything I've read before. Rarely do I not lose interest in a book halfway through it, but with this one, I couldn't stop until I reached the end. Like her, we desire to get to the bottom of this enigmatic world but arrive at nothing. I think people who are pissed about the book offering no answers and leading nowhere completely miss the point: life is in walking and not in arriving, for no matter how much you carry, the only thing awaiting at the end of the journey is the departure into the nothingness or the “somethingness” we will always know nothing about.
And that's the beauty of the book - contemplative yet obvious, deeply emotional yet deprived of any emotion, hopeful and hopeless at the same time.
“I cannot mourn for what I have not known.”
Now this is the kind of ennui I can get behind. Enough with the stories about male professors listlessly weighing whether to cheat on their wife. No, give me meandering dystopias about women who somehow (but perhaps also inevitably?) find resolve in themselves to continue to exist in a world separate from the community and hope we all take for granted.
Here, our nameless narrator lives in an underground bunker, behind bars. This makes it difficult to have any grasp on seasons or time of day. She cohabitates with 39 other women, but is a few decades younger than everyone else. Men guard the bunker, but do not speak to the women. The women have no privacy and are not permitted to touch one another.
You may be wondering, what is going on? The forty women have the same question. One day, they are suddenly, miraculously, granted an opportunity to find out. The narrator takes it and drags the other 39 along with her. They escape in disbelief.
I can see why this book may not be for everyone, especially if you are used to fast-paced thrillers leading up to shocking twists. But I find something so oddly comforting about depressing, oppressively quiet science fiction. How the biggest mysteries slide into total monotony. Why do I like it so much?!
Anyway. If you like [b:Station Eleven|20170404|Station Eleven|Emily St. John Mandel|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1680459872l/20170404.SX50.jpg|28098716], [b:The Wall|59468837|The Wall|Marlen Haushofer|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1639132182l/59468837.SY75.jpg|573687], or [b:The High House|58438623|The High House|Jessie Greengrass|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1639315106l/58438623.SY75.jpg|86405057], you will likely enjoy this. Maybe also [b:Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind|60754889|Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind|Molly McGhee|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1682359454l/60754889.SY75.jpg|95796035] or [b:Convenience Store Woman|36739755|Convenience Store Woman|Sayaka Murata|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1680105376l/36739755.SX50.jpg|51852264].
I liked this. I mean, it’s a bit strange but also quite interesting. The narrator tells her left’s story. She grew up in an underground bunker, one of 40 women who were caged and guarded by men who never speak to them. They are allowed no privacy or occupation, and are not even allowed to touch each other. The other women are older and remember life before the bunker.
One day everything changes.
The narrator isn’t really a likable character, and the story is quite slow, but it is interesting. I’m going to have to look into what else this author has written.
3.75 - “I have spent my whole life doing I don't know what, but it hasn't made me happy”
3.5 ⭐️ this was a really well written novel. I have never read a book where there was not a single male character and it was kinda nice and refreshing. I also loved the resilience of the main character and the other women of the story.
But by the end I was bored. It began to feel extremely repetitive.
A Dystopian post-apocalyptic absurd story with a very sad ending. Very well-written. Some people say it has hope but I can't see where it is. It's full of themes about the meanings of being human like the importance of passing cumulative knowledge, and leaving it in written form even if you were the last human standing and there was no hope of anybody reading it.
The Road, but better. I will probably reread this again in a few years as I feel it is a book that will change as I age just like the narrator. Bleak af tho but there's still hope and love in there which when it comes down to it is what life is all about
I don't remember where I found this book or why I wanted to read it. But I was disappointed. Reading this book was honestly exhausting and there is quite literally no pay off. The writing isn't good and very clunky to read. The world building is non-existent, literally nothing is explained throughout, the idiocy of the characters pissed me off to no end.
They mention how different the main character is from the other women about a million times, she is constantly put into the context of how she has never known things, and yet constantly defining her by things from a world she doesn't below. And very bluntly making that contrast, which I think pointless. It could have been so cool, but all the story does is say ‘look how different she is because no men'. There is even a scene where she touches herself but can't ‘go in' because her hymen is ‘blocking' the way. Which isn't how hymens work, by the way. They could have made her totally detached from any gendered expectations. Such a waste of a concept.
Then the story also really went nowhere. Nothing ever happens, the relationships aren't even important, the story is written completely emotionless and nothing about why or how any of this happened gets explained at any point. She just fucking dies and that's it. Waste of my god damn time reading this book.
Bleak as hell, this book will stay with me for a long time. Small and simple on its face, but has a lot to say about human connection and the why of it all. Don't read it if you don't want to think.
This book was stunning. I absolutely loved it. I do wish I could find out what happened to the world and why they were caged - but that's my own curiosity
Haunting, glaringly original and enthralling.
How does one tell a story constructed of a lifetime so bleak and uneventful that it really should be very boring, in a way that is gripping, stimulating, and profound? In a world teeming with questions and devoid of answers, how does Harpman sustain the reader's hope and curiosity vicariously through her narrator?
It's magic.
I wish I understood French so that I could experience it all over again in a new way with all the nuance of the original. This might just be my best read of the year.
How does the electricity work? Where does the food come from? How are they able to breathe if this is a non-earth planet? Why does the sun look like ours but the seasons never change? Where did everybody go? Is this purgatory/hell? This book is really only concerned with the philosophical exploration rather than the practical workings of the world which is fine, but personally I would have been slightly more satisfied if even a little bit of the inner workings were revealed. The writing really is excellent - you live in the mundane so completely that any little discovery seems like a huge reveal until you realise you actually are no closer to any understanding about what is going on. I am still thinking about this book days later which must be a good thing.
Ya pasaron 3 días desde que lo terminé y lo sigo digiriendo. siento que necesito volverlo a leer, llegas al climax rápido, super intrigante y después, el 90% del libro transcurre en “lo mismo” pero wow khe?? Jaja no sé qué más decir, estoy muy impactada con esta lectura, me dejó muy melancólica, no sé
I absolutely loved how this book felt so organic as it is told from the perspective of someone who has very little knowledge
Ontsnappen uit een gevangenis om te ontdekken dat het gewone leven niet meer bestaat. Vreemd boek.
4.8
This book is melancholy, enigmatic, and lonely in the best possible way. I read it in the original French and found it very accessible for me, for whom French is my rather rusty second language.