🔗 Share this article

The new book features characters pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the narrative. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Kraus began as an creative who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a moment when she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.

Three 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 characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section.

As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms 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 hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the pleasure readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society driven by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her online critics would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to go further into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par