The new book centers on protagonists pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. At the same time, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this appears a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. But then it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
The writer started out as an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It makes sense that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As someone who reads drawn to crafted language of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
