The new book centers on protagonists pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. And yet, the author herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, since this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be packed with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Kraus began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she claims that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to honed writing of the type the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As a reader who favors precise prose of the style that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the young Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a world fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to meet 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, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
