This latest work features characters chasing after new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. The author often employs the phrase "new beginning", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. But then it turns out to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
Kraus began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It makes sense that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to honed writing of the type the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the satisfaction 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 blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
