This latest work centers on characters chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from addictions or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the story. At the same time, she is embarking on her own fresh start, because this seems a new kind of book – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
The writer began as an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to try out different types of content, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing three generations – none able to break free from their histories. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband her husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader drawn to polished prose of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the middle section. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
