This latest work is populated with protagonists pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this appears a novel form of writing – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
The writer started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader fond of honed writing of the sort Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.
Being a reader who favors crafted language of the style that the author often disregards, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the container that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the middle section. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the referenced day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what happened when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who gains dimension in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
