This latest work features characters seeking clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the narrative. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this presents as a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
Kraus started out as an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form infused into the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she now wants 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 unnecessary.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to refined literature of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening part.
As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
