The new book features protagonists seeking fresh starts, attempting to leave behind addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the text. And yet, she is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. However it turns out to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Kraus was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming confessional female writing from humiliation into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader fond of polished prose of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section.
Being a reader who favors precise prose of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the central part. Catt Greene is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day passed by the victim with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
