The new book features individuals chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this seems a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. But then it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
The writer was originally an creative who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their pasts. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to honed writing of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the initial segment.
As a reader who favors precise prose of the variety that Kraus tends to eschew, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the killer and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, loitering getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
