🔗 Share this article

The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, because this appears a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Kraus began as an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to try out different types of content, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. There is the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader drawn to refined literature of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.

Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books comes back in the second segment. Catt is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between two different states, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment driven by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day spent by the victim with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, mooching around fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par