The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this seems a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. However it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Kraus was originally an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a time when she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering multiple eras – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
As a reader fond of polished prose of the sort Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.
As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the style that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for small details, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion 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 perceive".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
