This latest work is populated with protagonists chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind addictions or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this seems a novel form of writing – documentarian, authentically narrative. But then it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
The writer began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked 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 evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a time when she asserts that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the story of characters Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to honed writing of the kind Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the style that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world fueled by the hostility and dread that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the deceased with the killer and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
