I Who Have Never Known Men
***THE RUNAWAY BESTSELLER***
"Each revelation is a small miracle."--The New York Times
Deep underground, thirty-nine women live imprisoned in a cage. Watched over by guards, the women have no memory of how they got there, no notion of time, and only a vague recollection of their lives before.
As the burn of electric light merges day into night and numberless years pass, a young girl--the fortieth prisoner--sits alone and outcast in the corner. Soon she will show herself to be the key to the others' escape and survival in the strange world that awaits them above ground.
Jacqueline Harpman was born in Etterbeek, Belgium, in 1929, and fled to Casablanca with her family during WWII. Informed by her background as a psychoanalyst and her youth in exile, I Who Have Never Known Men is a haunting, heartbreaking post-apocalyptic novel of female friendship and intimacy, and the lengths people will go to maintain their humanity in the face of devastation. Back in print for the first time since 1997, Harpman's modern classic is an essential addition to the growing canon of feminist speculative literature.
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Readers say *I Who Have Never Known Men* is a haunting, philosophical novel that invites deep reflection on captivity, identity, and humanity. Its dre...
This existential novel published originally a few decades ago deserves to be on a shelf with Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot and perhaps Victor Frankl's Man's (or in this case Woman's) Search for Meaning. Worth a read if you're curious about why life can be good anyway, even if you have nothing to live for.
I listened to this book and though it was very thought-provoking; a great book to discuss afterwards with a book club. I found it frustrating that so many answers were purposely left unanswered. I understand that that was the point - we often don't get an explanation for things that happen in life. But when I read a book or watch a movie, I desire answers and clarity and closure. I had so much hope throughout the book that there would be some big reveal; that there would be clues to explain why the women ended up in this underground bunker. Yet the narrator never finds out. It made want her to keep searching. With that said, I really appreciated the way it showed how the older women were held back by the societal and cultural norms they held onto from the past. Once out of the bunker, they continued to be limited in their abilities to live life. The narrator had been too young to remember life before the bunker, so she was not tied to those societal beliefs. That gave her an advantage once they were all beyond the bunker. I just wish she had had the opportunity for more discoveries along her solo journey.
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