I Who Have Never Known Men Paperback – May 10, 2022

I really enjoyed this book. I was left feeling curious, longed for more and was also in a heavy analyzation mode. It was so thought provoking...as a person who enjoys being alone most of the time, it gave me a good deal to ponder. It made me more curious of myself. Don't expect to feel 100% satisfied with the story...that's the point. Highly recommend.

genre: speculative fiction, science fiction, dystopia"Deep underground, thirty-nine 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." (Goodreads synopsis)‘Hello! Is anybody there?’ This book is an allegory for our own shouts in the empty universe. Our seeking for meaning & answers where there are none. It is philosophical, existential, thought provoking. It was a strange read that stayed with me long after I closed the pages. A story with many questions and few answers.

2.5 stars. I finished this little book in 2 days, it was interesting and somewhat enjoyable read, and thought provoking, but mostly for the wrong and unintentional reasons. I don't understand all the five star reviews, as I found it very problematic as a novel.The major problems are with the framing and writing style. The narrator reveals in the first few of pages that she is alone and dying and is writing the story of what happened to her. As a very young child, with no memories of a before, she is imprisoned in a cage with a group of 40 women. Guards who never speak to them patrol the outside.A little bit spoliery, but not much:They are not allowed to touch each other, and the women don't interact much or talk much to the child, so that she mostly understands through listening to them. They have nothing other than food and bedding. However, despite all this, the narrator is now writing reflectively, with a highly developed vocabulary, about her past. For me this broke the fourth wall and the immersion in the book. I was unable to suspend my disbelief.Later there is some logic to how she could have begun to understand more about the world in which we live, and learn rudimentary reading skills. But to think that she understood what she did, could reflect on abstract concepts in the way she did, and use the extensive vocabulary that she did, is unbelievable even given her later experiences. I have a PhD in Psycho-Linguistics, study children's language development, and all that I have studied and read would not lead to a person with the experiences the protagonist had, being able to write and reason as eloquently as this, or being able to read the few books it is later mentioned she has access to.Also, many people have seen this as a feminist novel, talking about the subjugation of women. And while I agree there are discussions of menstruation, wombs, the importance of children to women, I don't agree it is about the subjugation of women.Spoilers here:When they find other cages, they are just as likely to be men as women. So this is not something done just to women, but to both sexes equally. Neither are the women sexually abused or interfered with as women in any way.I also, take issue with the talk that they are not on Earth. They seem to quickly jump to this conclusion, with very little firm evidence. While later the years of walking through the wilderness, with a lack of seasons and winter, make this likely, there, are other possible explanations as to why they are somewhere that might not be Earth as they know it. They could be in a computer simulation for instance. It could all be a dream by the protagonist who is in a comma. These are as likely explanations as being on another planet. Perhaps even more so, as they can explain why the women who remember other things about their lives in imprisonment (despite a few years being possibly drugged, making the events that lead up to imprisonment and early years blurry), don't recall space exploration, or anything like that. It would also explain why the electricity and water remain on and everything continues working for more than 40 years without apparent maintenance. They and we cannot conclude anything about where they are from the evidence provided.It is a philosophical book, and an interesting book. It made me think, although mostly about what was wrong with the book, and how it could have been written and framed differently to tell the same story but in a more immersive and believable was. So glad I read it, but don't recommend it, and don't understand the many 4 and 5 star reviews.

Not my typical genre, but I absolutely loved this! It kept a great pace throughout the whole book and constantly kept you thinking. This is unlike any other book I've ever read.

This book was great but at points hard to follow. The ending left me feeling disappointed, without any spoilers that's all I can say.

I got this book for my boyfriend cause he wanted it but i dont know what its about but im assuming it is a good book

I loved the way this was written, but I'm left with so many questions. I'm deeply into and troubled. Someone take this kindle away from me.

A genre clash that I had not expected but found so fulfilling. Sometimes, think, that in trying to appeal to the human experience, we forget the role sex and gender play. This book takes the experience of being the lone survivor in a strange world, someone who doesn't even know themselves or humanity, and makes her femaleness, both so important and enriching to the story and at the same time, inconsequential and just part of the human experience. Definitely a book that will stay with me for a long time as both a lover of science fiction and feminist literature.