This latest work centers on individuals seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the narrative. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, since this seems a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
The writer began as an creative who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It makes sense that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that current political era turns intimate literature redundant.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their pasts. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader drawn to honed writing of the kind Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the variety that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as her spouse moves between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the killer and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
