The new book is populated with characters chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. At the same time, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this seems a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
The writer began as an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that current political era turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. There is the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to honed writing of the type the author herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the initial segment.
Being a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day passed by the deceased with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
