The new book centers on individuals chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, as this seems a new kind of book – observational, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
The writer began as an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to refined literature of the type the author herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.
As a reader who favors crafted language of the kind that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the middle section. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension in part due to Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
