The new book is populated with characters pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author often employs the phrase "new beginning", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. At the same time, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be packed with the familiar conflicts and styles as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
The writer was originally an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a period in which she states that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, 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 community long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the type the author herself typically rejects, I was captivated 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 seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this different style could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels returns in the central part. The protagonist is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world driven by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
