The new book features individuals pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
The writer began as an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She kept producing books, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to explore different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to polished prose of the sort the author herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.
As a reader drawn to crafted language of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world fueled by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
