The new book is populated with protagonists chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. At the same time, she appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, as this appears a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Kraus was originally an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It makes sense that she now wants to explore different types of content, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning three generations – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader fond of honed writing of the type Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the victim with the killer and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
