The new book is populated with individuals chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this appears a novel form of writing – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Kraus began as an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader fond of polished prose of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As a reader who favors crafted language of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, failing to help her husband curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the rage and anxiety that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the killer and his friends. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
