This latest work is populated with protagonists seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into aggression. The author often employs the phrase "new beginning", rendering it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the text. At the same time, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this seems a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
Kraus started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format brought to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with different types of content, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader attracted to honed writing of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As a reader who favors precise prose of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
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 audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partly through Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
