The new book centers on characters seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself seems to be making her own fresh start, as this appears a new kind of book – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
The writer started out as an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their histories. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the narrative of the author, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
For this reader fond of refined literature of the type Kraus 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 tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the central part. The protagonist is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his friends. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, mooching around fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt converses 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
