The new book features characters chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the story. And yet, the author herself seems to be making her own fresh start, as this seems a different type of work – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. Yet it turns out to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
The writer was originally an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative redundant.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the kind the author herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening part.
As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the style that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the unpolished style she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the second segment. Catt Greene is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she states that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
