The new book features protagonists chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. And yet, she seems to be making her individual reinvention, since this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Kraus was originally an creative who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she now wants to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing obsolete.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their histories. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to refined literature of the sort Kraus herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the style that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the victim with the killer and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, mooching around fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
