A review by mmcloe
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

There's a brand of French existentialism that positions the singular perceived "outsider" as being the central point of reflection on the human experience. We see it in Camus and Sartre all the time and we see it in this novel as well. Reducing an individual to the most absurd conditions possible can be really helpful for thinking through some of the major questions about what it means to be a human on this strange little rock. I don't know if Harpman tackles these issues super well - there's a major lack of any kind of conflict or struggle against anything other than boredom, which can be profound but mostly when coupled with other kinds of conflicts. The focus on the individual also eliminates much of the communal, the divine, and the ecological that makes existential thought so intriguing. 

I don't see this book doing much that Angela Carter or Ursula LeGuin can't do ten times over. That being said, this is technically the writings of a person only raised on astronautics books and intro existential literature, so maybe it is an accurate depiction.