This latest work features individuals seeking clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Kraus started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the epistolary style infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to refined literature of the kind Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.
Being a reader who appreciates crafted language of the style that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
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 dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the central part. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a world fueled by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes 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
