🔗 Share this article

This latest work features individuals chasing after new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. And yet, she seems to be making her own fresh start, because this seems a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it turns out to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

The writer was originally an creative who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – each trapped by their pasts. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to honed writing of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.

As a reader drawn to crafted language of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the container that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels returns in the middle section. Catt is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the referenced day spent by the deceased with the killer and his friends. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par