The new book centers on individuals chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her individual reinvention, since this presents as a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Kraus started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing obsolete.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing three generations – each trapped by their backgrounds. The book includes the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of polished prose of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the container that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could persist to the end. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
