The new book centers on characters chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. And yet, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, since this presents as a different type of work – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be packed with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
The writer was originally an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the story of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of refined literature of the sort Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.
As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the unpolished style she echoes from her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
