The new book centers on individuals pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this seems a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
The writer began as an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It makes sense that she presently aims to try out different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to honed writing of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.
As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, helped by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while moving between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her online critics would not understand, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. The author possesses excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
