The new book is populated with individuals seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the story. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, since this appears a novel form of writing – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
The writer was originally an creative who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format infused into the tone 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 real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to try out fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering several time periods – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the narrative of the author, 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 her husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader attracted to polished prose of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
Being a reader drawn to precise prose of the style that the author often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the middle section. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, failing to help her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. 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 might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day passed by the victim with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
