This latest work centers on protagonists seeking fresh starts, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the narrative. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, because this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
The writer started out as an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a time when she asserts that current political era turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband a man named Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to polished prose of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As a reader who favors precise prose of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his friends. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
