🔗 Share this article

This latest work is populated with protagonists seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this presents as a novel form of writing – documentarian, truly literary. But then it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

The writer was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader fond of refined literature of the type Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.

As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as 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 with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par