🔗 Share this article

The new book features characters chasing after new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. And yet, she is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Kraus began as an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader fond of honed writing of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.

As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself often disregards, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for trivial aspects, like the pail that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works comes back in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the anger and fear that powers a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the referenced day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par