This latest work is populated with characters pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this seems a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and styles as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
The writer began as an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to 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 much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to try out different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that current political era turns intimate literature redundant.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering multiple eras – none able to break free from their backgrounds. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that Kraus often disregards, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this different style could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the satisfaction audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the deceased with the killer and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to go further into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
