The new book is populated with protagonists seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, as this appears a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. However it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
The writer started out as an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It makes sense that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their backgrounds. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader fond of polished prose of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.
Being a reader drawn to precise prose of the kind that the author tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the container that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to go further into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
