🔗 Share this article

The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the text. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, because this seems a different type of work – observational, truly literary. However it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Kraus was originally an creative who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to experiment with fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to honed writing of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the murderer and his friends. The author possesses excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par