Nelson creates an intricate textual exploration into the fragmentary process of dealing with grief, loss, unsolved crime and violence, and the kind of shadow a family member can cast over an entirely family when they die young and unnaturally. Weaving her aunt's journal entries, her own poetry, news reports, and more, the book serves as both an inquiry into Jane's death and a tribute to her life. Although, mostly presented in verse form in terms of line breaks and spacing, it reads with the kind of momentum a prose drama might as it pulls you ever deeper into the pain, confusion, and loss the Mixer family experienced. Nelson is one of only a few writers who seem to create and leverage such an exquisite tension between the analytical and the emotional in their writing.
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an excerpt:

DIGNITY

They knew how to mourn
with dignity

my mother says.
It's the Calvinist way.

As if keening on your knees
were somehow obscene

As if there were a control
so marvelous

you could teach it
to eat pain.

the most structurally unique book I think I’ve read

“But there can be
holes in time
the mind tries

to ignore, holes
that perforate
the felt of

the night sky.”

In Jane: A murder, Maggie Nelson writes about her aunt Jane’s unsolved murder in the form of poems. These poems include articles on the investigation, snippets of Jane’s diary, and memories that the author had from discussing her aunt with other family members.

what an incredible tribute

I’m gutted.

incredible. beautiful and mostly thanks to jane!

True crime meets memoir meets poetry. I adored Nelson’s use of her aunt’s diary entries and the way she communicated the heinousness of Jane’s murder by presenting her as a person, not a faceless victim defined by her death.