The new book centers on protagonists pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", rendering it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this presents as a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. However it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
Kraus started out as an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the epistolary style imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a locality largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to honed writing of the type the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the second segment. Catt is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment driven by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
