The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into violence. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. But then it reveals itself to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
The writer was originally an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she states that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to polished prose of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.
As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the central part. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day passed by the victim with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what happened 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 amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
