This latest work centers on individuals pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", making it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this appears a new kind of book – observational, authentically narrative. But then it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
The writer began as an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity 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 currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he responds, "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."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that drives Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day passed by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus has great source material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
