This latest work is populated with protagonists chasing after fresh starts, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, since this seems a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it turns out to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Kraus started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that current political era turns intimate literature redundant.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their histories. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to polished prose of the sort Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the style that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a great plaything", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the pleasure audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels reasserts itself in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the victim with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what transpired when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
