This latest work is populated with characters chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind drugs or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the narrative. At the same time, she seems to be making her individual reinvention, because this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from self-debasement into rebellion. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. There is the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader fond of refined literature of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the kind that the author often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the central part. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
