The new book is populated with protagonists pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the text. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this appears a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. But then it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Kraus began as an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the letter form brought to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she claims that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing obsolete.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader fond of honed writing of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the pleasure audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books reasserts itself in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the anger and fear that powers a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus has great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
