This latest work is populated with characters seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the story. Meanwhile, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this presents as a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Kraus was originally an visual artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition 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 directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the type the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.
As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that makes room for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, helped by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the second segment. Catt 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 Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as her spouse cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the deceased with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, mooching around fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly 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 difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
