BOOK REVIEW | I, WHO HAVE NEVER KNOWN MEN | JACQUELINE HARPMEN

ABOUT THE BOOK

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

Originally published in 1995 by Belgian author Jacqueline Harpman.  Published in its native French the book was titled Moi qui n'ai pas connu les hommes and was republished in 2022.

The story revolves around a teenage girl, known only as girl throughout the story who lives in a cage with thirty-nine other women. The women are guarded by a group of men who never talk to the women and whose only interaction is to talk to the women with the crack of a whip.

None of the women know why they are there and why there is a child amongst them. They are forced to sleep at a certain time, they are forced to eat at a certain time, and they are not allowed to show emotion.

Not mixing with the other women, the girl sits in the corner. She never mixes with the other women until she has a secret and the women try to force it out of them.  She spends her time thinking about the handsome guard, creating stories in her head in order to relieve the boredom of day to day living.  

One day, whilst delivering their food, the guards abandon their posts when an alarm sounds. Upon leaving the jail the women find themselves on a barren plain with no knowledge of what is out there, or if they are even on earth.

I Who Have Never Known Men is an extraordinary novel. Whilst appearing bleak, the book is full of hope and warmth.

The writing is sparse and Harpman never wastes a word. Her sentences are sharp and honed. At times the story can be frustrating as Harpman never gives a reason for why the group of women are there and there is never any backstory or explanation as to the events that led to the women being held in captivity. However, the story is utterly captivating and whilst you never know the reasons as to why this happened, especially when the women get free and find that they are not the only ones that have been held in captivity and who actually is holding them.

The story is propulsive as the women learn to live in the outside world, but realise that they have swapped one form of confinement for another.

I Who Have Never Known Men is a heartbreaking, beautifully written book that whilst short, ultimately packs a weighty punch that will last for a long time.