This latest work features protagonists pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. And yet, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, since this seems a new kind of book – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
Kraus started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of refined literature of the type the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.
As a reader who favors precise prose of the kind that Kraus often disregards, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
