The new book features individuals chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, she appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Kraus began as an creative who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she presently aims to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader fond of refined literature of the sort the author herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.
As a reader who favors honed writing of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a society propelled by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her online critics would not understand, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
