This latest work centers on individuals seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. At the same time, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be packed with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Kraus started out as an creative who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a locality mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
For this reader fond of refined literature of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between two different states, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the hostility and dread that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day spent by the deceased with the killer and his friends. Kraus has great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing 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 partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
