MixedThe New York Times Book ReviewNelson becomes distracted from Jane’s story by a failed love affair, which becomes off-putting because we get to know her partner only as 'the man I loved.' And vague, panicked explorations of the meaning of life and her 'disassociated, heartbroken fog' will be hard for any reader to sympathize with. But even at her weakest emotionally, Nelson is refreshingly self-critical — of herself and her writing project. She never figures out what it is that compels her to sit at the trial, 'jotting down all the gory details, no different or better than anyone else.' Is it that she wants Jane’s life to matter, she wonders, or her own?
