The new book features protagonists seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this appears a different type of work – observational, truly literary. However it proves to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Kraus was originally an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a renegade artist 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 try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, moving from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the sort Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.
Being a reader drawn to precise prose of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the victim with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as Brandon came to meet 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 with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression 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's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
