I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
“As far back as I can recall, I have been in the bunker.”
A young woman is kept in a cage underground with thirty-nine other females, guarded by armed men who never speak; her crimes unremembered… if indeed there were crimes.
The youngest of forty—a child with no name and no past—she survives for some purpose long forgotten in a world ravaged and wasted. In this reality where intimacy is forbidden—in the unrelenting sameness of the artificial days and nights—she knows nothing of books and time, of needs and feelings.
Then everything changes… and nothing changes.
A young woman who has never known men—a child who knows of no history before the bars and restraints—must now reinvent herself, piece by piece, in a place she has never been… and in the face of the most challenging and terrifying of unknowns: freedom.
The Reason
This was my online bookclub’s BOTM and one of the other bookclub members said it was really good so I got curious and excited!
The Quotes
“If you do something that is forbidden, it is the action that is the target. If you do something that isn’t forbidden, and they intervene, then it’s not the activity that’s attracting the attention, it is you yourself.”
“By remaining silent, they were creating a girl who didn’t know and who would regard them as the custodians of a treasure. Did they only keep me in ignorance so they could pretend they weren’t entirely powerless?”
“I understood that, alone and terrified, anger was my only weapon against the horror.”
“Sometimes, you can use what you know, but that’s not what counts most. I want to know everything there is to know. Not because it’s any use, but purely for the pleasure of knowing, and now I demand that you teach me everything you know, even if I’ll never be able to use it.”
My Thoughts
I loved this book! I’m not sure if I’ll be able to talk about what I loved most about it without giving away spoilers, but I’ll try.
This book is written without chapter breaks, and yet somehow it felt interesting enough that I kept reading, on print, without feeling bored or needed to take breaks. The lack of chapter breaks also corresponds to the story itself because the women’s imprisonment not being marked by any sort of time-keeping felt parallel to the story not being marked by chapters. There were also some other parallels to later parts of the story about not having markers. I loved that!
It’s a very thought-provoking read and I love that it had so much fodder for speculation and uncertainty. Definitely worth reading!
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
I also loved this book so much, it made me think and was so bleak but beautifully written. I totally agree with your point about the lack of chapters and their inability to keep track of time, that was a clever format! I like you didn’t mind it in this specific situation.
I thought it was a really cool stylistic choice for the book! I’m glad you loved this book too!