This latest work is populated with individuals chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author often employs the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, as this presents as a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Kraus began as an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative redundant.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their pasts. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader drawn to honed writing of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.
As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the variety that Kraus tends to eschew, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. The protagonist is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day passed by the victim with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
