🔗 Share this article

The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters chasing after fresh starts, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. 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 text. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her own fresh start, as this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to refined literature of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the opening part.

As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the middle section. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par