The new book centers on protagonists pursuing clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this presents as a novel form of writing – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Kraus began as an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the tone 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 much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she now wants to explore different types of content, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature redundant.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband a man named Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to polished prose of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.
As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the kind that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books comes back in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the victim with the killer and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
