This latest work centers on protagonists chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, since this presents as a different type of work – observational, truly literary. However it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Kraus was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming confessional female writing from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative obsolete.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their backgrounds. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader fond of honed writing of the sort Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section.
Being a reader drawn to precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the anger and fear that drives a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would not understand, would not even see".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the referenced day spent by the victim with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
