The new book features characters chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this seems a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and approaches as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
The writer started out as an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It makes sense that she now wants to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader fond of honed writing of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.
As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the style that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment 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 hero writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his friends. Kraus has excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
