This latest work is populated with individuals chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this seems a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. Yet it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
The writer was originally an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It makes sense that she presently aims to explore different types of content, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she states that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader drawn to honed writing of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.
As someone who reads who favors crafted language of the kind that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this different style could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred 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 – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
