This latest work is populated with individuals chasing after new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. At the same time, she is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this presents as a novel form of writing – documentarian, truly literary. However it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
The writer started out as an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the epistolary style brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It makes sense that she currently desires to explore different types of content, turning outward to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader fond of refined literature of the sort the author herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
Being a reader who appreciates crafted language of the style that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
