This latest work centers on individuals seeking fresh starts, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. And yet, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this presents as a novel form of writing – documentarian, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
Kraus started out as an creative who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the epistolary style infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature redundant.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to refined literature of the type the author herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
Being a reader who favors honed writing of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the central part. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned 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 the nation that her online critics would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the deceased with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
