The new book is populated with characters chasing after new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, as this appears a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it turns out to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
The writer was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their backgrounds. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a community long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to polished prose of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the variety that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "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 hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, mooching around fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to go further into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
