The new book centers on individuals seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
The writer began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the power and directness that the letter form infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she now wants to try out fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.
As someone who reads drawn to honed writing of the style that the author often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the satisfaction audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the middle section. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. In a moment she states that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
