This latest work is populated with individuals seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, since this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Kraus began as an creative who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to polished prose of the kind the author herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As someone who reads drawn to honed writing of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for small details, like the pail that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the killer and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
