This latest work is populated with protagonists chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her own fresh start, because this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
The writer started out as an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader fond of refined literature of the type the author herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.
Being a reader who appreciates precise prose of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the killer and his companions. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
