This latest work features characters chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, because this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it proves to be laden with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style brought to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards 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 organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader drawn to polished prose of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "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 fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a environment driven by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
