🔗 Share this article

The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, since this seems a novel form of writing – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

The writer started out as an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering multiple eras – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to honed writing of the kind Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

As a reader drawn to precise prose of the style that the author often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named 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 alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par