This latest work centers on protagonists chasing after new beginnings, 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 willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this appears a different type of work – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. Yet it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
Kraus began as an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative redundant.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to refined literature of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As a reader who favors crafted language of the variety that Kraus herself often disregards, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse moves between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment driven by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
