🔗 Share this article

The new book features protagonists pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, the author herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, since this appears a novel form of writing – documentarian, authentically narrative. But then it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

The writer began as an creative who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating intimate women's literature from self-debasement into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It makes sense that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. The book includes the story of characters Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader drawn to refined literature of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.

As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse cycles through underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a environment driven by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she says that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par