I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

 

Summary (from the publisher): Deep underground, forty 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 important addition to the growing canon of feminist speculative literature.

Review: Our unnamed narrator has only known the confines of an underground cage, where she is imprisoned with 39 other women. Watched over by guards, the women have no memory of how they got there. As unknown days and years pass, our narrator and her companions emerge from their prison to see the world that awaits them above ground. 

This novel was deeply moving and unsettling. The book is very intentional and relentless in its refusal to give up any answers. I ultimately struggle with open ended texts, desperately wanting the author to just tell me already. But in this case, the not knowing is truly the point and the reality that the narrator must live with. After listening to the note after the text, it is illuminating to learn the author survived World War II, because I think the echoes of the horrors of concentration camps are very evident in the imprisonment the characters in this book endure. In part, this book is a meditation on the seemingly meaningless cruelty humans inflict on one another. 

This novel is also a philosophical meditation on what it means to be human. In a way, the narrator's life echoes the question of if a tree falls in an empty forest, does it still make a sound? What defines her life or shapes its purpose in the absence of meaningful connection or even true purpose. It is also a great reflection on contentment. Our narrator is restlessly seeking more until the very end of the book, always hoping for answers just beyond the horizon. Hope is a very central pillar to this book. Even in the direst circumstances, hope thrives and spurs humans on to persist and carry on in light of any odds. 

I had to wait a couple days after finishing this one before writing my review just to reflect and think about what to say about this book. I listened to the audio version, which was well done. I can't say I enjoyed listening to this - it's too grim a story to describe it this way. And I did feel frustrated and disheartened by the story and how it concludes. But it did make me think and is a story that will stay with me. 

Stars: 4