The new book features characters chasing after new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the narrative. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this seems a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Kraus started out as an visual artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a nonconformist creator who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering three generations – none able to break free from their backgrounds. There is the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the character of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to polished prose of the kind Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening part.
As a reader who favors honed writing of the style that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the young Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works comes back in the central part. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses 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 standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
