This latest work centers on protagonists chasing after new beginnings, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. However it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and styles as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
The writer started out as an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to explore different types of content, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she states that current political era turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their pasts. The book includes the story of characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a locality mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader attracted to polished prose of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the narrative style of the opening part.
As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the container that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the deceased with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
