The new book centers on individuals chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, since this presents as a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. But then it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Kraus was originally an creative who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. The book includes the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader fond of refined literature of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells 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 wished this different style could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the victim with the killer and his friends. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
