The new book is populated with protagonists chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. And yet, she seems to be making her own fresh start, because this appears a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
The writer began as an creative who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering three generations – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.
As a reader drawn to crafted language of the variety that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this different style could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
