I Who Have Never Known Men

This book was recommended to me by a coworker who is one of my favourite people, but we both readily acknowledge that we have very different reading tastes. She loved this book and I ... didn't.

The Gist: 39 women are held prisoners by male guards underground and besides necessities, are not cared for, routinely threatened and don't know why they are being kept. One young woman narrates the story, and it is her experience from which the title is derived from.

My Take: This book is a blend of dystopian and speculative fiction and touched on themes like gender inequality, but not in any depth. It will instigate discussion among readers BUT for me it was monotonous, sloooow paced, lacked clear world building and left me still not knowing WHY these women were imprisoned. What was the point to the story?

To the speculative fiction genre - please know that this is totally a 'it's me not you' kind of thing. You're just not my jam. 

And to my colleague SL - You know I adore you and love that we have such different tastes in books. Bookish opposites do attract. :)

One sentence review: I who have never felt more frustrated. 

My Rating: 2 stars

Author: Jacqueline Harpman

Genre: Dystopian, Speculative Fiction

Type and Source: eAudiobook from public library

Narrator: Nikki Massoud

Run Time: 6 hours, 10 min

Publisher: Echo Point Books & Media

First Published: January 1, 1995

Read: July 9-12, 2025

Book Description from GoodReads: Deep underground, 39 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 40th 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.

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, Jacqueline Harpman’s modern classic is an important addition to the growing canon of feminist speculative literature.