🔗 Share this article

The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this appears a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

The writer began as an visual artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she currently desires to explore new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. The book includes the narrative about Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader fond of refined literature of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the opening part.

As a reader who favors honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the second segment. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her online critics would not understand, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. Kraus has great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par