This latest work centers on characters chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the story. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and approaches as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
The writer was originally an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It is logical that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their pasts. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader drawn to polished prose of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening part.
As someone who reads drawn to crafted language of the variety that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this different style could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed 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. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
