This latest work is populated with characters seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind addictions or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into violence. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the text. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
The writer started out as an creative who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to try out different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative redundant.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – each trapped by their histories. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening part.
As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books comes back in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his companions. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what occurred as Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
