Comment Editor Lauren Penzer unpacks the cliches of dystopian fiction and introduces an alternative yet brilliant piece of short fiction

Written by Lauren Penzer
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Images by Kevin Wolf

When it comes to dystopian fiction, I believe we have all gotten a bit too comfortable. With big-name franchises like The Hunger Games and Divergent filling up our bookshelves and tv screens, we have all gotten too used to being spoon-fed our dystopia. Stories such as those I have mentioned above, though, I concede, being young adult fiction, give us a great understanding of the world we are entering. By the end, we feel like we understand this place, how it came about, and even how to fix it. 

I Who Have Never Known Men, one of my favourite novels, gives us none of this, and yet gives us so much more. We have no clue where we have been, where we are going, and why we are there. And yet the novel divulges into such raw and gut-wrenching ideas, and manages to maintain a humane and yet complex tone through the narrative perspective. I remember reading the book, and afterwards I just had to put it down, and stare at the ceiling for a while. It took something out of me, but also gave me so much. So let’s talk about I Who Have Never Known Men.

a worthy classic in the dystopian genre

The novel was originally published in French in 1995 by Jacqueline Harpmann, and translated to English only two years ago, in 2022, by Ros Schwartz. The book quickly gained recognition by English-speaking readers, though many readers have been left confused by the purpose of the book, because of its open-ended and unrevealing nature. 

The novel follows a young girl, of an unknown age, with no memory of her childhood or name. As the description reads: ‘Deep underground, thirty-nine women are kept in isolation in a cage. Above ground, a world awaits. […] Soon she will show herself to be the key to the others’ escape and survival in the strange world that awaits them above ground. The woman who will never know men.” As this suggests, the novel explores ideas around gender and oppression, but also about family, resilience, isolation, and acceptance. 

I Who Have Never Known Men was published ten years after The Handmaid’s Tale but, given its only recent publication in English, the novel has gone mostly unrecognised as a worthy classic in the dystopian genre. Similarly to Atwood’s novel, and unlike the modern dystopian fiction mentioned above, this book does not walk us, calmly and carefully, through the world in which it is set. We are not spoon-fed clues and history, nor are we given a happy ending in which the heroes conquer the villains, and the dystopian world disintegrates. Instead, we are placed in the middle of a mysterious and unrevealing landscape, and given little explanation as to why it exists. 

open-ended and unrevealing […] the book proposes more questions than it answers

Some less seasoned readers may, understandably, question the point of such literature. Why read a mystery that doesn’t reveal its secrets? Why become attached to characters, and then deprive them, and us, of a satisfactory ending? Indeed, the book proposes more questions than it answers. But, personally, that is what I love so much about it. We think alongside the narrator; her confusion and curiosity are ours also. And, along the way, we are made to question moral and philosophical questions that the book conjures up. What would life be for a woman who has never known men? What do women do in the face of danger, and how do they survive? What life can we build from nothing?

I would recommend this book to anyone, but it is not for the faint of heart. If you would like a classic coming-of-age, or an action-packed adventure novel, this book may not be for you. But this book is one of the best I have ever read, and left me with a mind full of questions, and a heart warmed for love of the characters. 


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