The new book centers on characters chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. And yet, Kraus herself seems to be making her own fresh start, because this presents as a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and styles as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
The writer was originally an creative who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to try out fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then 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 substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
As a reader fond of refined literature of the kind Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the middle section. 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 manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she states that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his friends. Kraus has excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
