This latest work features individuals chasing after fresh starts, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her own fresh start, because this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Kraus started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into assassination. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of honed writing of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the narrative style of the opening part.
As someone who reads drawn to crafted language of the variety that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the central part. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that powers an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the referenced day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, mooching around getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
