This latest work features individuals pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the story. At the same time, she seems to be making her own fresh start, because this presents as a new kind of book – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
Kraus was originally an creative who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to try out different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.
As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the style that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the pail 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 great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this different style could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the referenced day passed by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when 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 with her companions, mooching around fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
