This latest work is populated with characters chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. At the same time, she seems to be making her individual reinvention, since this seems a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer 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, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to try out fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. We encounter the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
As a reader fond of polished prose of the sort Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.
As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the rage and anxiety that powers an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his friends. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what occurred as the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
