This latest work centers on individuals pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the narrative. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, as this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
Kraus was originally an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming personal female narrative from abjection into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative obsolete.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the kind Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.
As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the second segment. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the anger and fear that drives a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to see 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 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 individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
