The new book is populated with individuals chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the story. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this appears a new kind of book – observational, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Kraus was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering several time periods – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
For this reader fond of polished prose of the sort Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the variety that Kraus often disregards, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for small details, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units 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 society fueled by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. 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 exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the referenced day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
