The new book is populated with protagonists pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, since this seems a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. But then it proves to be packed with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
The writer started out as an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to try out different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a time when she asserts that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to polished prose of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the opening part.
As a reader who favors honed writing of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the middle section. Catt is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the deceased with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, mooching around fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
