This latest work centers on protagonists seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind addictions 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. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. At the same time, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this appears a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
The writer began as an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the letter form infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It makes sense that she currently desires to explore fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the account of Kraus, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the kind the author herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.
As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society driven by the anger and fear that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim 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, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
