This latest work is populated with characters seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this appears a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
The writer was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a nonconformist creator who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the story of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader fond of polished prose of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels reasserts itself in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the deceased with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
