🔗 Share this article

The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself seems to be making her own fresh start, because this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. But then it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Kraus was originally an creative who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to refined literature of the type the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.

As someone who reads drawn to honed writing of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated 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 compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual 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. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par