The new book features individuals chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Kraus frequently uses 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" are scattered across the text. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, because this seems a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
The writer started out as an creative who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to explore different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she claims that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader fond of polished prose of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.
As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the variety that the author often disregards, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. In a moment she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes 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 anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
