The new book is populated with characters pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this seems a novel form of writing – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
The writer began as an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative redundant.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
As a reader fond of polished prose of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books comes back in the central part. Catt is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she says that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her online critics would not understand, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
