The new book is populated with protagonists seeking clean slates, struggling to escape drugs or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", rendering it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this seems a novel form of writing – documentarian, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Kraus began as an creative who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to try out different types of content, turning outward to external narratives, at a time when she asserts that current political era turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. The book includes the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction 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 cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind the author herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.
Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. It possesses a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, helped by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the satisfaction audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. Catt Greene is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her online critics would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the murder itself – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the murderer and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
