The new book is populated with individuals chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this presents as a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. However it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
The writer was originally an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to explore different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally 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 addict husband a man named Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the container that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, failing to help her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the victim with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what occurred as Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
