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A review by inuyasha
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
4.25
really harrowing and beautiful and made me feel like there was a stone in my stomach - this reminded me a lot of how i felt when i read our wives under the sea both in terms of emotions evoked and the reading experience of speculative fiction that cannot be classified wholly as one subgenre over another, but instead exists as a vehicle for the author to explore relationships and humanity. i think there's a good reason this is resurging in popularity right now - the concept of being oppressed and dehumanized for unknown reasons by unfamiliar people whose logic you cannot comprehend due to the absurdity of it all. the feeling of attempting to live a good, happy life despite extreme isolation - obviously formed by harpman's family fleeing persecution as jews in belgium, but also relatable in a late-stage capitalism breaking down community way.
maybe expected due to the publication year, the author's age and experience, etc but this felt a little rudimentary in its exploration of feminism and at times leaned very heavily into concepts of bio essentialism that i just didn't care for. it's hard to tell if this was the intention of the author or that our protagonist was raised by women raised and brainwashed so severely by patriarchy that even those ideals filtered through in a world isolated of that. the completely inaccurate hymen scene, the idea that the women and our protagonist were somehow unfulfilled for not having children, the idea that beauty existed just to appeal to men...... i don't know. it bummed me out and brought me out of the reverie this book was otherwise capable of putting me in. i think our protagonist, who has never known society or patriarchy or gender roles besides secondhand accounts would have been a great thought experiment if it didn't continue to keep coming back to like inherent wants/desires/etc being framed as because she was a woman.
maybe expected due to the publication year, the author's age and experience, etc but this felt a little rudimentary in its exploration of feminism and at times leaned very heavily into concepts of bio essentialism that i just didn't care for. it's hard to tell if this was the intention of the author or that our protagonist was raised by women raised and brainwashed so severely by patriarchy that even those ideals filtered through in a world isolated of that. the completely inaccurate hymen scene, the idea that the women and our protagonist were somehow unfulfilled for not having children, the idea that beauty existed just to appeal to men...... i don't know. it bummed me out and brought me out of the reverie this book was otherwise capable of putting me in. i think our protagonist, who has never known society or patriarchy or gender roles besides secondhand accounts would have been a great thought experiment if it didn't continue to keep coming back to like inherent wants/desires/etc being framed as because she was a woman.