The new book features protagonists seeking fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, because this seems a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Kraus started out as an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering several time periods – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to refined literature of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening part.
As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the variety that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books reasserts itself in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between two different states, failing to help her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the victim with the killer and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
