The new book is populated with characters seeking clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, as this appears a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
The writer started out as an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide 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.
As a reader drawn to refined literature of the kind Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As a reader who favors honed writing of the style that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the pleasure audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the central part. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the killer and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par