This latest work centers on individuals seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this appears a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be packed with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
The writer was originally an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, transforming confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format infused into the tone 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 makes sense that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing obsolete.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the narrative of the author, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to polished prose of the kind Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.
Being a reader who favors crafted language of the variety that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the anger and fear that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to go further into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
