The new book centers on individuals pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her own fresh start, as this seems a different type of work – observational, truly literary. Yet it proves to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
The writer started out as an creative who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It makes sense that she now wants to try out different types of content, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative obsolete.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their backgrounds. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to honed writing of the type the author herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.
As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the style that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that drives an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, mooching around fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
