The new book features individuals seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, as this appears a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. However it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
Kraus started out as an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to try out different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a moment when she claims that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – none able to break free from their backgrounds. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise 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. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.
Being a reader who favors crafted language of the variety that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, helped by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "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 new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment 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 author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the victim with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot 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 narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to go further into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
