🔗 Share this article

The new book is populated with characters seeking clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the narrative. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this presents as a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

The writer began as an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the correspondence format infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It makes sense that she currently desires to explore different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature redundant.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to polished prose of the type the author herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the initial segment.

As a reader who favors honed writing of the style that the author often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the anger and fear that drives a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par