This latest work centers on characters pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. And yet, she seems to be making her individual reinvention, because this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and approaches as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Kraus started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to explore fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that current political era turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to refined literature of the kind the author herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As a reader who favors crafted language of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a new quality of attentiveness 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 cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the anger and fear that drives a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even see".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
