The new book features individuals chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be packed with the familiar conflicts and styles as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Kraus started out as an creative who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to explore different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the account of Kraus, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to polished prose of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, 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 hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the middle section. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day passed by the victim with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has 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 was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
