This latest work features individuals seeking clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", 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. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, as this seems a new kind of book – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
Kraus was originally an creative who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to honed writing of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the anger and fear that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy 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 shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
