This latest work centers on protagonists chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the narrative. Meanwhile, she is embarking on her own fresh start, since this appears a new kind of book – observational, authentically narrative. However it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Kraus began as an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to try out different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that current political era turns intimate literature redundant.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering several time periods – each trapped by their histories. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader fond of polished prose of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.
As a reader who favors crafted language of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the container that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the central part. Catt Greene is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
