The new book centers on protagonists chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it 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 narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her own fresh start, since this seems a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. But then it proves to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
The writer started out as an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their histories. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to honed writing of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As someone who reads drawn to crafted language of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour 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 appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
