This latest work centers on characters chasing after new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. At the same time, she appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, because this appears a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
The writer started out as an creative who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into rebellion. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It is logical that she now wants to try out different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, 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 late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to refined literature of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she says that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as 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 alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
