The new book centers on individuals seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. And yet, she is embarking on her own fresh start, because this appears a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Kraus was originally an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a community mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the type the author herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who favors crafted language of the style that the author often disregards, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a environment driven by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, mooching around fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
