The new book is populated with protagonists pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this seems a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Kraus started out as an creative who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style infused into the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a time when she claims that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to polished prose of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As a reader who favors precise prose of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, helped by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the second segment. 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 feels helpless as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus has great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par