🔗 Share this article

The new book centers on characters chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into violence. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the text. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be packed with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Kraus began as an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the power and directness that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative obsolete.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.

As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that powers an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the deceased with the killer and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, mooching around fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par