The new book features characters seeking clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the story. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this presents as a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
The writer began as an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning three generations – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader fond of refined literature of the kind Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.
As a reader who favors precise prose of the variety that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the first section. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, helped by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, mooching around getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
