The new book is populated with protagonists pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the story. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, because this seems a different type of work – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. Yet it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
The writer started out as an creative who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the power and directness that the letter form infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to honed writing of the kind Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As a reader drawn to precise prose of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works comes back in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day passed by the victim with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
