The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the narrative. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, since this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Kraus began as an creative who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It makes sense that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering multiple eras – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader attracted to polished prose of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
Being a reader who favors precise prose of the variety that Kraus often disregards, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the victim with the murderer and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as Brandon came to see 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, mooching around getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
