The new book centers on protagonists pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the text. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this appears a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. But then it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Kraus began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide 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 rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to polished prose of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the initial segment.
As a reader drawn to precise prose of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels returns in the central part. Catt Greene is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
