The new book centers on characters pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. At the same time, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be packed with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Kraus started out as an creative who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a time when she states that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. There is the narrative of the author, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a town mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the type the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As a reader drawn to precise prose of the variety that Kraus tends to eschew, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between two different states, failing to help her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
