This latest work centers on protagonists chasing after fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "new beginning", rendering it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this appears a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
The writer was originally an creative who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It makes sense that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their backgrounds. The book includes the story of characters Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader fond of refined literature of the kind Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the start of the story, helped by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works comes back in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. 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 may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his friends. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
