The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. At the same time, the author herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this presents as a novel form of writing – documentarian, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be packed with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
The writer began as an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the letter form brought to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a nonconformist creator who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to explore different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering three generations – none able to break free from their histories. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to refined literature of the sort Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.
As a reader who favors honed writing of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could persist to the end. The author states here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the central part. Catt Greene is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a environment propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, 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 says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I found myself captivated 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 go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. 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 degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
