The new book is populated with protagonists seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself seems to be making her own fresh start, because this seems a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Kraus began as an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming confessional female writing from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she now wants to try out different types of content, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that current political era turns intimate literature redundant.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband her husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
