The new book features characters seeking clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, since this presents as a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
The writer started out as an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to explore different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a moment when she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
As a reader fond of polished prose of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening segment. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. The protagonist is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the referenced day spent by the victim with the killer and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
