This latest work centers on characters chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, she appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, since this appears a novel form of writing – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
The writer was originally an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into assassination. She kept producing books, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to explore different types of content, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
As a reader fond of refined literature of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.
As someone who reads drawn to honed writing of the variety that Kraus often disregards, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, helped by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the central part. Catt Greene is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the deceased with the killer and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
