The new book is populated with individuals seeking clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into 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 narrative. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, since this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
The writer was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a time when she claims that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader attracted to polished prose of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.
Being a reader who appreciates crafted language of the kind that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the central part. Catt is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society propelled by the hostility and dread that drives Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, mooching around getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
