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chloe_jade 's review for:
I Who Have Never Known Men
by Jacqueline Harpman
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This book will haunt me forever - and I’m glad. Such elegantly written prose for such an evocative tale.
I was saddened to see people find this book misogynistic. The author, Jacqueline, was born in 1929 - I believe the characters are a good reflection of what she would’ve lived through - patriarchal beauty standards, housewife culture, patronisation of women. It’s not right to assume any author’s beliefs are the same as their characters.
The characters are a product of all of that, and I found the protagonist’s dedication to exploration despite the solitude to be empowering. By the end, I had a strong affinity with the protagonist.
A raw dive into what it means to be human when everything is stripped away from us.
I was saddened to see people find this book misogynistic. The author, Jacqueline, was born in 1929 - I believe the characters are a good reflection of what she would’ve lived through - patriarchal beauty standards, housewife culture, patronisation of women. It’s not right to assume any author’s beliefs are the same as their characters.
The characters are a product of all of that, and I found the protagonist’s dedication to exploration despite the solitude to be empowering. By the end, I had a strong affinity with the protagonist.
A raw dive into what it means to be human when everything is stripped away from us.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail