The new book centers on protagonists seeking clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, truly literary. But then it turns out to be filled with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
The writer started out as an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from abjection into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the character 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 a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader fond of polished prose of the kind Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.
Being a reader who appreciates precise prose of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the central part. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment propelled by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
