This latest work centers on characters chasing after new beginnings, attempting to leave behind addictions or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. The author often employs the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, since this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
Kraus began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the letter form infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – each trapped by their backgrounds. The book includes the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to honed writing of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
