This latest work features characters seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this appears a different type of work – observational, truly literary. However it turns out to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
The writer began as an creative who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into rebellion. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to explore different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a moment when she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their pasts. There is the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader attracted to honed writing of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
Being a reader who appreciates precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself often disregards, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a society driven by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
