This latest work features individuals seeking clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and styles as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Kraus started out as an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It makes sense that she presently aims to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing obsolete.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – all unable to escape their histories. The book includes the narrative about Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
For this reader fond of refined literature of the kind Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the central part. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between two different states, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the anger and fear that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
