March 2, 2024
By Hyun Cho
Jacqueline Harpman was a psychoanalyst and an author. Having written over 15 novels, she has won numerous literary prizes, including the Prix Medicis, and has made her mark in the world of literature. As much as there's a first for everything, her novel I Who Have Never Known Men has been my first introduction to her works. acqueline Harpman was a psychoanalyst and an author. Having written over 15 novels, she has won numerous literary prizes, including the Prix Medicis, and has made her mark in the world of literature. As much as there's a first for everything, her novel I Who Have Never Known Men has been my first introduction to her works.
This is the type of book that becomes a classic. Alas, it is now considered as such, and well-deservingly. The emotional impact of this tiny novel is delicate and disquieting, and at times bleak and dismal. Rather than a novel that sets out to conclude, the scenes are used as a tool for philosophy. This is a novel that leaves readers with more questions than answers. It leaves us as desolate about the situation as the narrator is.
The concept of the book is this: a group of 40 women are kept in isolation in an underground bunker, watched over by guards. When they finally escape on a stroke of luck, they find themselves alone, above ground, and only surrounded by other similar bunkers. The concept is instantly enthralling, with Harpman setting vivid scenes and asking questions of hope, longing, and freedom.
Out of these women, 39 were those who were used to human civilization. Our narrator, the youngest, on the other hand, has only known her whole life within the bunkers. With this, she is effectively stripped away from the traces of civilization that the other women have been so affected by. Alienated and removed from this society, she sets it upon herself to create "civilization," or what it means to be human, when they are finally able to escape.
The most despondent aspect of this book is that there was never any compensation for the hope portrayed by the women. There was never any conclusion, only a dismal portrait of what can be assumed as a world gone wrong. The world-building is also very singular, following the cognitively impeded viewpoint of a girl with a captive upbringing. What the book lacks in world-building, however, we receive in the narrator's ceaseless strive for enlightenment, emotion, and introspection.
In a way, the title itself is significant in telling the purpose of the novel. What makes I Who Have Never Known Men an effective title is that it can either be taken literally or on a deeper level, with "men" referring to civilization and the remains of it.
While the concept of the novel itself is powerful, I found the translation to be bleak and somewhat flat. I found myself falling into a sort of slow-ticking rhythm while reading, since the second half of the book seemed to go around in circles until the narrator was finally isolated. The premise soon felt repetitive, even within this tiny manuscript of a novel. I also failed to find satisfaction in the non-conclusive ending, and the very minimal worldbuilding, along with the copout feeling of never attaining anything to understand, felt underwhelming to me.
Kommentare