This latest work centers on protagonists seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, she appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. But then it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Kraus started out as an creative who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book 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 engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. The book includes the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband her husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to refined literature of the sort Kraus herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.
As a reader drawn to precise prose of the style that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that powers an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
