I Who Have Never Known Men is layered in ambiguity yet creates such deep meaning if you let it. This book can be interpreted and debated in so many ways while being true at its core about what it offers: A chance to really think about what it means to be Human.

This was everything I wanted Camus's The Stranger to be and more. Don't expect distinct answers, don't expect an elaborate plot - I believe this book's 'dystopia' here is only a tool in which to ask questions.

A despondent, compelling story that somehow still manages to highlight grace and individual power where you initially believe there to be none. One of my top books of this year.

"To be homeless is to be ignored when people walk past while still being in full view of everyone."

A sad, rambling story told from the perspective of Kazu, a man who dies full of regrets and confusion, a man forgotten amongst the relentless march of time and the development of Tokyo. The tone is strangely reminiscent of Camus's Mersault, however I did find more empathy here for this narrator; even more so for his Family. The messaging around the mistreatment of the unhoused is clear. No matter who these people are or what they've possibly sacrificed for the city, even at the detriment of family and self, their story is not one in which the City and its people pay any heed; the marginalised are, much like the label, pushed to hidden corners so that the Tokyo you see matches the 'gloss' of the tourist brochures. An ever hungry machine of production and presentation.

The comparisons utilised here between the Emperor and our narrator are intentional. Through this, and other reflections and observations, those who are often overlooked, who are vulnerable, or are not given a place in this society are brought to the front of this story. The Emperor in his lofty abode, pushing aside all that aren't deemed of value to the system he enforces and benefits from. People feel they have 'failed' and leave their homes out of shame. They feel they don't look the part, or don't fit in right, or they make a mistake that snowballs. Some don't have anyone, or anything, left and the community of the park welcomes them. All of these people are regularly shown by the Authorities and passerbys that they do not matter.

The book can lean monologue heavy, and it does deviate often into snippets of history. But these are all building up meaning with implications, a bit of nuance. The ending really got me.

Quite provocative, very tragic.

Monster Hunter the game but you bang a lizardman who so violently cares about the environment he eats the bad people polluting it, and you kinda go feral for it. 10 / 10 would.