This latest work is populated with protagonists seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, she is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this appears a novel form of writing – documentarian, authentically narrative. But then it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
The writer started out as an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader drawn to refined literature of the sort Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the central part. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the anger and fear that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
