The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals chasing after new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, since this appears a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. However it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and approaches as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the power and directness that the epistolary style brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing obsolete.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their pasts. The book includes the narrative about Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, moving from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to polished prose of the type Kraus herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening part.
As someone who reads drawn to crafted language of the variety that the author often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the rage and anxiety that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
