Review: I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman (Spoiler-Free)

I was perfectly aware that I had only added another question to all the others, but it was a new one, and, in the absurd world in which I lived, and still live, that was happiness.

I could sense this book would be 5 stars from a mile away.

Every time I read, I find that the book I'm currently working through eerily reflects the same problems I'm grappling with at that exact moment. And yes, admittedly, that must be because I'm seeking a solution to those problems, but Jacqueline Harpman's I Who Have Never Known Men couldn't have fallen into my life at a more relevant time.

The novel is conceptually simple: 40 women live underground in a cage, perpetually monitored by guards who dictate the routines of their lives at arbitrary intervals. We remain in the head of one character, the youngest of the women, and the narrative sustains itself as entirely stream of consciousness. This works particularly well for this story, because this stream of thoughts is all the child gets to experience. There is no life. There are no events. There is just herself, and the cage.

Without diving into spoilers, the story does expand at some point, but only slightly. It remains eternally confined, only now by new limits. We are provided no answers, only questions, but as the excerpt I've provided above suggests, within this existence, they are exciting.

I've spent a decent amount of time in my life quite isolated and during that time, I too craved something, anything, new—even if it was just a question. This novel expertly mines into that headspace, that innate need for purpose, or if not that, at the very least, progress. Towards what? You might never know. But you have to hold out hope it might lead somewhere.

I like books about the endurance of the spirit, of human nature being portrayed optimistically, and ones that wrestle with the impossible question of where we are, how, and why.

I Who Have Never Known Men distills that all-consuming question into one neat story. One that provides no answers, because there aren't any to be given.