🔗 Share this article

The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists chasing after new beginnings, attempting to leave behind drugs or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. At the same time, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, since this appears a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

The writer started out as an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the central part. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par