🔗 Share this article

The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists seeking clean slates, struggling to escape drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this seems a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and approaches as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Kraus was originally an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a time when she asserts that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative obsolete.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to refined literature of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.

As someone who reads drawn to crafted language of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the satisfaction audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, 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