The Maris Review, vol 79

Maris Kreizman

04 Nov 2025 — 4 min read

It's the last big new release day of 2025

What I read this week

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Hartman, translated by Ros Schwartz

Tomorrow night I'll be discussing I Who Have Never Known Men at McNally Jackson Seaport. It's the first book that I've ever loved that I discovered through TikTok. Or, more specifically, the first book that I discovered because it was already a phenomenon on TikTok. I cannot wait to talk about why readers think this French novel from the 1990s that I had never heard of caught on so wildly. Now Transit Books has released a brand new edition of the novel and they're also reprinting some of the authors other works.

Dystopian novels are all over the place these days, but I was struck by how elegantly I Who Have Never Known Men unfurls. It's dark as hell but it's still an invigorating read. The premise? The book opens with the unnamed narrator as a child who has spent her entire life in a cage below ground with 39 other women, watched over at all times by male guards. I know. Seems bad. And we don't know how they got there or why, nor do they. It's not a spoiler – maybe it's even a relief – to tell you that the women escape from their cage, and much of the novel takes place afterwards as they venture out into the world. Where are they? Are there others? What world are they living in? There aren't many answers, but the novel asks so many good questions. How do you claim your humanity when all you've learned is imprisonment and captivity? How do you make a life for yourself with so little knowledge about your origins or your future? I'm excited to ask all of these questions tomorrow night.

There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America by Brian Goldstone

Speaking of dystopias, what a fitting read for the week when SNAP benefits have halted for 40 million Americans. I wrote a whole book about how being hardworking and industrious does not guarantee success in life for the middle class but despite my disappointments I am safe and secure and I have dozens of safety nets. Brian Goldstone's devastating and impeccably reported book, which follows the plight of five housing insecure families in Atlanta, shows how the real tragedy of our time is that hard work doesn't even guarantee a place to live in today's America.

Goldstone shows how the US government (both sides of the aisle) likes to believe that only people who live on the streets count as homeless, and so much of their struggle has to do with mental illness. Residents of extended stay motels are not counted, even though they We like to imagine that all people who are getting paid by employers can meet their basic needs, and that is simply not the case. Is this a failing of the individual worker? Fuck, no. Obviously not. Rents have skyrocketed while the minimum wage has stagnated. The rich get richer, etc. One mother whom Goldstone followed was asked by a shelter to take a financial literacy course, and her rejoinder sums up the problem. "What kind of 'financial literacy' would make it easier to afford $380 a week rent on a $12-an-hour wage?" It doesn't have to be like this.

Speaking of...

Happy Election Day

I spent the latter half of the year talking about my book and the disillusionment I've felt with the political status quo, and the question I most often got is "what gives you hope right now?" Thank you to Zohran Mamdani for providing the answer.

New releases, 11/4

It's the final big new release day of 2025. There are so many big names on the list below. I really encourage you to take a look at the books written by less flashy names.

Lightbreakers by Aja Gabel

Flat Earth by Anika Jade Levy

Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Brathwaite

Only Son by Kevin Moffett

Another Bone-Swapping Event by Brad Fox

Sex Change and the City by Tuck Woodstock and Niko Stratis

Palaver by Bryan Washington

Indignity: A Life Reimagined by Lea Ypi

The Dinner Party by Viola van de Sandt

The Insider: Malcolm Cowley and the Triumph of American Literature by Gerald Howard

Seascraper by Benjamin Wood

Helm: A Novel by Sarah Hall