This latest work features characters pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the story. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, because this appears a novel form of writing – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and approaches as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
The writer was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the power and directness that the epistolary style infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It makes sense that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing three generations – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening part.
As a reader who favors precise prose of the variety that the author often disregards, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her online critics would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
