This latest work is populated with protagonists pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the narrative. At the same time, she is embarking on her own fresh start, since this presents as a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. But then it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and aesthetics as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Kraus began as an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she now wants to try out different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband her husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of refined literature of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.
Being a reader who favors crafted language of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that powers an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "novelist" 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 researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt converses 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
