The new book centers on protagonists seeking fresh starts, attempting to leave behind addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. And yet, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Kraus was originally an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming confessional female writing from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally 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 a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to polished prose of the type Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.
As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a environment propelled by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "real estate holder" 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 exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the murder itself – and the referenced day passed by the deceased with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, mooching around fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
