Reviews with content warning for Suicidal thoughts - I Who Have Never Known Men

Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

78 reviews

now_booking's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

This was an interesting and unique exploration of what it might be like to come of age in a world completely without the trappings of culture, history, familial and social baggage and of course, men. Yet, despite the title, this is not a criticism or analysis of gender norms or an argument against the patriarchy. Indeed, my reading of “(not having ever) known men” is that the the nameless heroine may not only be referring to the male race even though that’s literally how she frames it and thinks about it, but figuratively (or synecdochically), in a broader sense, she refers to not ever having known “man” or the human race and all its trappings. For the heroine, raised in captivity, in a planet that might be earth or not at a time that might be contemporary or futuristic, conditioned to avoid human touch, raised without a name, without a fixation on identity or appearance or privacy, without understanding love or connection, no concept of time or seasons or of life or death, or art or history or the scope of the world or the universe, she has to find her own meaning to human existence, craft her own understanding of community and society and the vagaries of human behaviour, of time and body, sexuality and society.

In this coming of age tale, the heroine who spends much of her life isolated recounts her story as she remembers it perhaps pursuing the natural human instinct to be acknowledged to have existed at some time in history. Because of the unique way the heroine was raised (or raised herself), she’s not given to much emotion, so this feels like a very detached recounting of what is simultaneously and extraordinary and mundane existence. It’s not at all an exciting book but it is one that keeps you going even if just in the hopes that you’ll learn along with the protagonist where she and the 39 other women were kidnapped and taken to and for what reason.

I overall thought this was really unique and different and I’m glad I read it but I’m not passionate about it. I thought there was very little “so what” about having never known men. Towards the end, the author tried to make some inferences that are beautifully written but they never quite landed in elaborating on “the point”. This felt somewhat experimental for experiments sake and I wish the author had gone a little further with this. I recommend reading this if you’re looking for something quiet and uneventful, thought-provoking, and slightly disturbing (and sad).

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poirot's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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vixie's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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kaiyakaiyo's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

3.75 stars rounded up!

I think I would’ve liked to read this as part of a class; there’s just so much to unpack as a single reader that I’m coming up short!

Reading this was enjoyable, and surprisingly quick! I’d like to read books influenced/inspired by this one, as I think it is a very cool, specific sort of speculative/sci fi that I don’t see often, but would like to

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virgcole398's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes

4.75

I who has now spiraled into yet another existential crisis because of this book

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ameliasbooks's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

As much as I appreciate and enjoyed the ideas in this book, the execution didn't really click for me. Even without knowing the author's professional background, it would be quite obvious to notice that there was some psychoanalysis stuff going on.

The writing was okay, but nothing to write home about, which I probably expected more of, because of all the praise this book received lately.

There were some interesting questions raised to think about and I am reading a lot of bleak and depressing books, so I had no problem with this story being as plotless as it was.
I can also love an apocalyptic book in which the reason for it all is not explained (looking at you The Road), if this is not really what the book is about.

You could argue that this is also not what this story is about and you could just read everything as a metaphor for misogyny and patriarchy and to raise some big questions about resilience and the surving of the human race (women in particular).

However the way the story is build, it is a weakness of the book that not at least some of the questions are answered, because this would have only made the novel stronger. And I couldn't help but think that the author simply didn't want us to know, but that she didn't know herself, because that wasn't the focus of the story she wanted to tell. But authors should always have all the answers to their stories, even when they are holding them back from the reader, because otherwise it always shows.

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colormecaro's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Very nearly a perfect book. The only reason I subtracted from my rating is because sometimes I found the “I know this thing that I have never seen before, because the women have told me about it” a bit far fetched.

But ignoring that, this book is just something else entirely. Full of existential questions, and not very many answers.

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