This latest work is populated with characters seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this presents as a novel form of writing – documentarian, truly literary. However it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
The writer began as an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to honed writing of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.
As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works comes back in the second segment. Catt is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what happened when a man named 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 alongside her friends, loitering getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
