18ck 's review for:

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

3.0

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I was gripped by this but felt strangely dissatisfied with the lack of a resolution. I started of feeling like it was going to be some sort of Handmaid's Tale style sci-fi dystopia where the men have some sinister motive that the women have to understand and resist. When the men suddenly disappear it takes a real twist. The sense of mystery deepens as they try to figure out why what is happening is happening. But as they go on, none of the questions get answered and you wonder did the author set out to write a sort of Franz Kafka sci-fi experience, where a nameless protagonist never succeeds in making sense of the impossible situation she's placed in, and we understand more about our own plane in a meaninglessness world... Or could she just not think of an ending?

Alternatively, maybe it's a social allegory and we're supposed to read is as... What? Women finally being liberated from their subjugation to men but being unable to produce anything so just continuing to cannibalise the society that the men created until... they... all... die....?

I dunno, I've heard a lot of hype about the book, but I wanted more from it.