This latest work features protagonists seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. But then it turns out to be packed with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Kraus began as an creative who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to explore different types of content, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering multiple eras – none able to break free from their pasts. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to honed writing of the sort Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.
As a reader who favors precise prose of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her professional designation altered from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
