The new book features characters seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. At the same time, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this appears a new kind of book – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be packed with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
The writer began as an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only a short distance from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.
Being a reader who favors precise prose of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "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 different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment driven by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
