Jane was murdered in 1969, when she was a law student in Michigan. Nelson never met her aunt, but wrote this collection as a tribute to her, exploring the ways her death reverberated through the family, and the details of her short life. Nelson includes extracts from Jane's childhood diaries, from letters, and from discussions with parents and friends. It's a moving and imaginative tribute, but it doesn't have the depth or emotional power of Nelson's later work. It feel fragmentary without grabbing our attention. Jane's murder was explored in true crime books and made headline news, and Nelson shows the importance of Jane's life, instead of focusing on her death. The prose and poems here are careful and understated, and it's very competently handled, but I was looking for an emotional pull that Nelson doesn't achieve.

Four and a half stars.

A unique, lovingly crafted ode to an aunt never known.

Mycket mycket fin, blev rädd i vissa stunder

As an avid true crime fan, I was not surprised that this book was recommended. I have read the story of the Michigan University killings on various podcasts, but rarely did they give details about the victims. Maybe their families name, and the fact that many of them were on their period at the time of their murders, but that was all. Maggie Nelson, through diary pages, firsthand interviews, and poetry, tells the story of her Aunt Jane, the third victim of the tragic killings.

The diary parts especially were deeply emotional. I have heard about these murders many times, but I never thought deeply about who this girl was. Who she loved or what she wanted to be. She had favorite books and an entire life, and her death has made her into a murder victim, not a person—a quick read, but thought-provoking and emotional. I might listen to a podcast on the subject and then read again.

The world is ours, but we walk in it noticed

3.5

The act of imagining a girlhood beyond reach