The new book centers on individuals chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", rendering it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, she appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, because this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it turns out to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Kraus was originally an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming confessional female writing from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a nonconformist creator who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to explore different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she claims that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their histories. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of refined literature of the kind the author herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the young Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the central part. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the anger and fear that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what transpired when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
