The new book is populated with protagonists chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. At the same time, she is embarking on her own fresh start, as this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be laden with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
Kraus began as an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It makes sense that she now wants to try out fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to polished prose of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books comes back in the second segment. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the rage and anxiety that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
