This latest work features characters pursuing clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. Meanwhile, she is embarking on her own fresh start, because this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
The writer started out as an creative who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she claims that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – each trapped by their pasts. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to honed writing of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the hostility and dread that underpins a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents 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 deceased with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
