🔗 Share this article

The new book centers on individuals seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. At the same time, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this presents as a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. But then it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Kraus began as an visual artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming confessional female writing from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing three generations – each trapped by their histories. There is the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to polished prose of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.

As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled 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 "novelist" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point she says that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par