The new book centers on characters chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. But then it turns out to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
Kraus started out as an creative who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative redundant.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning three generations – each trapped by their histories. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, moving from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader fond of polished prose of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books reasserts itself in the central part. Catt Greene is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues 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 responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
