The new book centers on individuals chasing after new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, because this seems a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. Yet it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Kraus began as an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a moment when she claims 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 several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader fond of polished prose of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.
Being a reader who appreciates precise prose of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment she states that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was fascinated 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 explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
