The new book centers on protagonists chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this seems a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Kraus began as an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the letter form infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to try out different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing obsolete.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As someone who reads who favors crafted language of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the killer and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
