This latest work centers on characters pursuing new beginnings, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into violence. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, as this appears a new kind of book – observational, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
The writer started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering several time periods – each trapped by their histories. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to honed writing of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the style that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her online critics would not understand, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated 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 most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
