🔗 Share this article

The new book features characters seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the text. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her own fresh start, as this seems a novel form of writing – documentarian, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Kraus was originally an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to try out different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. The book includes the story of characters Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader drawn to polished prose of the type Kraus herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.

As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the central part. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the rage and anxiety that powers an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par