The new book is populated with characters seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the text. And yet, she seems to be making her own fresh start, because this appears a new kind of book – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
The writer was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It makes sense that she presently aims to try out different types of content, turning outward to external narratives, at a time when she asserts that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their pasts. We encounter the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to refined literature of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As someone who reads drawn to honed writing of the kind that the author often disregards, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
