The new book is populated with individuals seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the narrative. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
The writer was originally an creative who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she now wants to try out different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a moment when she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. There is the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
For this reader fond of honed writing of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As a reader who favors crafted language of the style that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. In a moment she states 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 not understand, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus has great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
