The new book features characters chasing after new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the story. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this appears a different type of work – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be packed with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Kraus started out as an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to explore new kinds of material, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their pasts. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to refined literature of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As a reader who favors precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative 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 wished this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
