I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I heard this on a few recommendations that espoused "deep" and "strange" and a good example of literary SF. From what I knew at the time, and without even checking when this came out (1995, translated in '97), I thought it might have been a close example of another novel that immediately came to mind: Blindness by José Saramago.

It was only after I started it did I realize that these two came out at the same year, showing the senseless cruelty of locking up women and then never dwelling on the reason WHY. But where Saramago's gave me a deep foreboding that really unlocked many more doors to the reality of the cruelty, Harpman's novel took a very different road: understanding from a viewpoint of near-total isolation and innocence in an objectively horrific dystopia--but without the overt cruelty.

I grew fascinated by the events, the logical progression, the curiosity she had about LEARNING a world that had no meaning.

It was only after I read it that I realized that the author was a psychoanalyst. And then it ALL came clear.

This wasn't really an SF. It's more of a psychoanalytical hypothesis with an obvious feminist reading. Specifically, the missing men, and the release from the prison (yes, yes, patriarchy) led directly to the bigger prison of existentialism. Meaning and the search for meaning just dried up and withered for everyone but the main character.

She still had a sense of wonder, of curiosity. And that, at least, saved this novel from being one of the topmost depressing books I've ever read.

It was a good thought experiment, however. The 90's were really good for that kind of literature.


My synesthesia smells leeks, meat, and green open earth. It WAS almost pastoral except for the whole dystopia bit. :)


Personal note:
If anyone reading my reviews might be interested in reading my own SF, I'm going to be open to requests. Just direct message me in goodreads or email me on my site. I'd love to get some eyes on my novels.

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