This latest work centers on individuals chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. At the same time, she appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this presents as a different type of work – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it turns out to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Kraus started out as an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a period in which she claims that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to polished prose of the kind Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the first section. It possesses a fresh level of observation that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her online critics would not understand, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the victim with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par