This latest work features characters seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", making it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, as this appears a different type of work – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
The writer began as an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style brought to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It makes sense that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – none able to break free from their backgrounds. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to refined literature of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.
As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the second segment. Catt is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the murderer and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
