This latest work is populated with characters chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind addictions or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, since this appears a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Kraus was originally an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a time when she states that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their histories. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to refined literature of the kind Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.
As a reader who favors crafted language of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the central part. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between two different states, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the killer and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy 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 murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
