This latest work features characters seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind drugs or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her own fresh start, since this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
Kraus was originally an creative who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to try out different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature redundant.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader fond of refined literature of the sort Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.
As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would not understand, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to go further into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
