The new book features protagonists pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
The writer began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to try out fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature redundant.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to polished prose of the sort Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.
As a reader who favors precise prose of the variety that the author often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for small details, like the container that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand 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 referenced day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
