The new book is populated with protagonists chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself seems to be making her own fresh start, as this appears a novel form of writing – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Kraus started out as an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format infused into the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to try out fresh narrative sources, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader fond of honed writing of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As a reader who favors crafted language of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely 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 entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. At one point she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to go further into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
