This latest work centers on protagonists pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", rendering it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this seems a new kind of book – observational, authentically narrative. But then it reveals itself to be packed with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
Kraus started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to explore different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their histories. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a town long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to refined literature of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the initial segment.
As a reader who favors precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the middle section. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the anger and fear that powers a political win. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the murderer and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues 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 the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
