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A review by aahrobot
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I have so many questions and thoughts, yet I am rendered utterly speechless. This is truly a 5 star read. I feel the main character's curiosity, frustration, annoyance; I feel her accomplishments and her developing traits and emotions.
We are entranced in a world that has no sense, but that doesn't need sense. The characters don't know why they are where they are, or even where they are or what's going on or why. I felt that confusion, but I also understood the contentment that takes place, of not wanting to know where, or why, or how. This is our life. Who are we to question it? But then, our narrator questions it. She wonders, she asks, thinks, grows, and learns so much about herself and the small (maybe largely endless) world around her.
When the alarm sounds and everyone begins their escape, I was truly on the edge of my seat. I caught myself pausing, telling the nameless narrator to go, seek, discover! This book is so deeply feminine, but so incredibly neutral. It is old and new, but timeless all in one.
There are a million quotes I could put here, that I want to share, but I also want to keep my own secrets (so I will keep my secrets, and you may keep yours). I want to sit with this and read it again and again. This is truly up there in my favorite reads of 2024; I am tempted to revisit this (which I never do). I will hold this in my heart for eons.
"After all, if I was a human being, my story was as important as that of King Leer or of Prince Hamlet that William Shakespeare had taken the trouble to relate in detail."
I am human, with emotions; love, remorse, compassion, frustration, anger. And my story, much like yours and our narrator's, is so violently important to human nature, even if you're the last one left.
We are entranced in a world that has no sense, but that doesn't need sense. The characters don't know why they are where they are, or even where they are or what's going on or why. I felt that confusion, but I also understood the contentment that takes place, of not wanting to know where, or why, or how. This is our life. Who are we to question it? But then, our narrator questions it. She wonders, she asks, thinks, grows, and learns so much about herself and the small (maybe largely endless) world around her.
There are a million quotes I could put here, that I want to share, but I also want to keep my own secrets (so I will keep my secrets, and you may keep yours). I want to sit with this and read it again and again. This is truly up there in my favorite reads of 2024; I am tempted to revisit this (which I never do). I will hold this in my heart for eons.
"After all, if I was a human being, my story was as important as that of King Leer or of Prince Hamlet that William Shakespeare had taken the trouble to relate in detail."
I am human, with emotions; love, remorse, compassion, frustration, anger. And my story, much like yours and our narrator's, is so violently important to human nature, even if you're the last one left.