The new book features characters chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into violence. The author often employs the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this presents as a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. But then it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Kraus began as an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It makes sense that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she states that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing three generations – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to polished prose of the kind Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As a reader drawn to crafted language of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the anger and fear that drives a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
