This latest work features protagonists chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. And yet, the author herself seems to be making her own fresh start, because this presents as a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. However it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Kraus began as an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It makes sense that she presently aims to explore different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to honed writing of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.
As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could persist to the end. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between two different states, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that drives an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source 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 sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
