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4.33 AVERAGE
4.33 AVERAGE
I absolutely loved this collection of poetry, not because of its poetic form but because it challenges what poetry can be and do. Jane: A Murder is a story of Maggie Nelson's aunt Jane who was brutally murdered in the late 1960's and believed to be part of an infamous series of murders known as The Michigan Murders. Maggie Nelson pulls pieces from Jane's teenage diary and intertwines them beautifully with her own writing. The image of Jane emerging in the book may not be who Jane truly was, but Nelson is still able to bring her to life as perhaps how she (born 4 years after Jane's death) imagines her. It is a beautifully told story of life, family, trauma and grief. Alongside with it, Nelson comments brilliantly on true crime and how using people's personal tragedies as entertainment harms the ones touched by it in real life.
Made me cry on the subway! This semi-narrative book of poetry is so tenderly written that by the end, no one I know has escaped without a few tears. Nelson is, as ever, an exceptional poet capable of writing beautiful work that seems to linger in a reader’s mind long after the book has been shut. Her yearning to know Jane, to connect with her, even to avenge her is palpable and consuming. As soon as I finished this book, I flipped back to the first page and read it again. Gorgeous, suspenseful, and deeply touching, a must read.
SECOND READ - three years on and this book isn’t nearly as good as my first review said - there are plenty of underwritten parts in this, some detritus that added little to the overall plot despite its brevity - that being said the opening prologue is absolutely sublime, one of my favourite sections of any book, and the ending still blows me away.
—-
This book is ludicrously, unfairly good- a family tragedy told so well that it is intimate without being claustrophobic, unique without exploitation. The kind of memoir that forms its own genre. If this book was a thousand pages it would get no less stars.
And of course there is a sequel, and of course i’m getting it.
—-
This book is ludicrously, unfairly good- a family tragedy told so well that it is intimate without being claustrophobic, unique without exploitation. The kind of memoir that forms its own genre. If this book was a thousand pages it would get no less stars.
And of course there is a sequel, and of course i’m getting it.
some of the most beautiful language i’ve had the privilege to read, which will stay with me for a long time. probably one of the best books i’ve read this year. cried every time i picked it up.
dark
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
So far this year, between A Map of Home and Jane, written by a grad school colleague, I am pretty darn proud of the women writers I know. Maggie's poetic processing of her aunt's brutal murder is so inventive and moving, I had to stop and literally catch my breath at one point in a crowded waiting room and I didn't care who noticed. Buy this book.
dark
emotional
informative
sad
fast-paced
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
okay so i picked this book up and got a little way through it before i realised it was very far from fiction. this is a beautifully but tragically told story of a young woman, the aunt of the author, who was murdered. i don’t have a lot of words right now but please, pick up this book, you won’t regret it.