This latest work features individuals seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into violence. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the text. At the same time, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this appears a different type of work – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and styles as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
Kraus started out as an creative who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from abjection into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she currently desires to explore new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature redundant.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. There is the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to refined literature of the sort Kraus herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who favors crafted language of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books comes back in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society propelled by the anger and fear that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
