The new book features characters seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this seems a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
The writer was originally an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to try out different types of content, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a moment when she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing three generations – none able to break free from their histories. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to go further into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
