This latest work features characters pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. At the same time, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this appears a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It makes sense that she currently desires to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader fond of refined literature of the type Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.
As someone who reads drawn to honed writing of the variety that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she says that she's investigating the murder 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 see".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
