This latest work is populated with individuals chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. Meanwhile, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this appears a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it turns out to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
The writer began as an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to try out different types of content, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she claims that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their backgrounds. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader fond of honed writing of the sort Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.
As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the central part. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the referenced day experienced by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
