The new book is populated with characters pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the story. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this appears a new kind of book – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be packed with the recurring issues and approaches as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
The writer began as an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style infused into the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to explore fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the account of Kraus, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by progressive politics only a short distance from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the sort Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section.
As a reader who favors honed writing of the kind that Kraus often disregards, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is 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 discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised 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 daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
