The new book centers on individuals pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, since this appears a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. However it turns out to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Kraus started out as an creative who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to explore different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader drawn to polished prose of the kind Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.
Being a reader who favors crafted language of the variety that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus has great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy 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 killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
