🔗 Share this article

The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this presents as a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Kraus 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 epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format infused into the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. The book includes the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a locality mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader attracted to refined literature of the type Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.

Being a reader who favors crafted language of the kind that the author often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help her husband manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who gains dimension in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par