The new book is populated with protagonists seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. And yet, Kraus herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
The writer began as an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format infused into the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she asserts that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing three generations – each trapped by their pasts. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to refined literature of the sort Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.
As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this different style could persist to the end. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the killer and his friends. 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 marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid 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 Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
