The new book is populated with characters seeking clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. However it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
The writer was originally an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their pasts. The book includes the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to polished prose of the kind Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
