The new book features characters seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this seems a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. But then it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Kraus was originally an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating intimate women's literature from self-debasement into assassination. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the epistolary style brought to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader fond of refined literature of the type the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.
Being a reader who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the middle section. Catt is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment she states that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails 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 complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
