The new book centers on protagonists seeking fresh starts, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the text. Meanwhile, she appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
The writer was originally an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – none able to break free from their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband a man named Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to polished prose of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As someone who reads drawn to crafted language of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the victim with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
