The new book features individuals seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the story. At the same time, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this presents as a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
The writer began as an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It makes sense that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she asserts that current political era turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their pasts. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to polished prose of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.
Being a reader who favors crafted language of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between two different states, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the hostility and dread that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the eponymous day passed by the deceased with the killer and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
