The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. At the same time, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Kraus began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the sort Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As a reader drawn to crafted language of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment she states that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
