🔗 Share this article

The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this seems a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be packed with the recurring issues and aesthetics as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

The writer started out as an creative who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to explore fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that current political era turns intimate literature redundant.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a locality mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader attracted to refined literature of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the style that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

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 enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the second segment. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par