The new book features individuals pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, since this appears a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Kraus began as an creative who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. 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 makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader drawn to refined literature of the kind Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who favors crafted language of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society driven by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
