🔗 Share this article

This latest work is populated with characters chasing after new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. At the same time, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Kraus began as an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. She kept producing books, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to polished prose of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.

As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the variety that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. In a moment she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par