The new book centers on protagonists seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind drugs or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. Meanwhile, she appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, as this seems a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Kraus was originally an creative who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It makes sense that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she asserts that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their pasts. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to polished prose of the type the author herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.
Being a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt 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 feels helpless as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states 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 fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
