🔗 Share this article

The new book features individuals chasing after fresh starts, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. At the same time, she is embarking on her own fresh start, as this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. But then it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Kraus was originally an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a moment when she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to honed writing of the type Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the initial segment.

As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the container that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works comes back in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the anger and fear that drives a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. The author possesses excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par