This latest work features protagonists seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the story. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this seems a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. However it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and styles as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Kraus started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with different types of content, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence 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 locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of honed writing of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.
Being a reader who favors crafted language of the style that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the victim with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
