🔗 Share this article

This latest work is populated with protagonists seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

The writer began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She kept producing books, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that current political era turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the type Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.

As someone who reads who favors crafted language of the variety that Kraus often disregards, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the hostility and dread that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par