The new book centers on protagonists pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this appears a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. However it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and styles as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
The writer began as an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy 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 evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of polished prose of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As a reader who favors crafted language of the kind that the author often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the pleasure readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels returns in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a society driven by the rage and anxiety that powers an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
