The new book features individuals seeking clean slates, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this appears a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
The writer began as an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She kept producing books, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to explore fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a time when she asserts that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering multiple eras – none able to break free from their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only a short distance from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the sort the author herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the variety that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books reasserts itself in the second segment. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that drives Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an America that her online critics would not understand, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
