🔗 Share this article

The new book centers on individuals seeking clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this seems a different type of work – observational, truly literary. But then it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

The writer started out as an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader fond of polished prose of the type Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.

As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a environment driven by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par