🔗 Share this article

The new book is populated with individuals seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, because this seems a different type of work – observational, truly literary. However it proves to be laden with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

The writer began as an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to honed writing of the type the author herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the narrative style of the initial segment.

As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could persist to the end. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" 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 could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the referenced day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when the victim 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 alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par