This latest work features individuals chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the story. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this seems a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Kraus was originally an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to try out fresh narrative sources, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she claims that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing three generations – none able to break free from their histories. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As a reader who favors precise prose of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the second segment. The protagonist is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the victim with the killer and his friends. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
