This latest work is populated with characters seeking clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this presents as a different type of work – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and styles as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
Kraus began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature redundant.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing three generations – none able to break free from their backgrounds. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. There is the narrative of the author, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to polished prose of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.
Being a reader who favors honed writing of the variety that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works comes back in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the referenced day spent by the victim with the murderer and his friends. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
