The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals seeking clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and styles as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Kraus was originally an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming confessional female writing from self-debasement into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the narrative about Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader drawn to refined literature of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. 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 untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, mooching around fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
