🔗 Share this article

This latest work features protagonists chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself seems to be making her own fresh start, as this presents as a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be packed with the recurring issues and approaches as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Kraus began as an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a moment when she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their backgrounds. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader fond of refined literature of the type the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could persist to the end. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works comes back in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day experienced by the victim with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly 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 jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par