The new book centers on characters chasing after new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into aggression. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this appears a different type of work – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Kraus started out as an creative who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to try out fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
As a reader fond of polished prose of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the pail that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her online critics would not understand, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to meet 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 with her companions, loitering getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
