This latest work is populated with individuals chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this presents as a new kind of book – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it turns out to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
Kraus started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It makes sense that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader fond of honed writing of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
Being a reader drawn to precise prose of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. It possesses a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the container that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
