This latest work features protagonists pursuing clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "new beginning", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, since this seems a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. However it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
The writer started out as an creative who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a moment when she claims that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. There is the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to honed writing of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.
As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the kind that Kraus often disregards, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for trivial aspects, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the referenced day spent by the victim with the killer and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
