This latest work is populated with individuals chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself seems to be making her own fresh start, since this seems a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
The writer was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to polished prose of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As a reader who favors honed writing of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. At one point she says that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the referenced day spent by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, mooching around fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
