🔗 Share this article

The new book centers on characters seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape addictions or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", making it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her own fresh start, as this seems a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

The writer started out as an creative who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to honed writing of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

As someone who reads drawn to crafted language of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the pleasure audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the anger and fear that powers a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, loitering getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par