This latest work centers on characters seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this appears a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
The writer began as an creative who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating intimate women's literature from self-debasement into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she states that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, relocating from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.
Being a reader drawn to crafted language of the variety that Kraus often disregards, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, helped by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the central part. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to visit 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, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression 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 gains dimension partly through Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
