This latest work centers on characters pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself seems to be making her own fresh start, since this presents as a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
The writer began as an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the letter form infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature redundant.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. The book includes the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to refined literature of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
Being a reader who appreciates crafted language of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the hostility and dread that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the killer and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
