The new book centers on individuals seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the narrative. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this presents as a novel form of writing – documentarian, authentically narrative. But then it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
The writer was originally an creative who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a community long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to honed writing of the type Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.
As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus often disregards, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this different style could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the central part. Catt Greene is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world fueled by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
