🔗 Share this article

The new book is populated with individuals pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind addictions or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. At the same time, she appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this seems a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

The writer started out as an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a time when she states that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader fond of refined literature of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.

As a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the central part. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, failing to help her husband curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she says that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. The author possesses excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to visit 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 in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated 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. But I'd have liked her to go further into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par