The Four Spent the Day Together features characters seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the narrative. At the same time, the author herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, as this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Kraus was originally an creative who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.
As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening segment. It possesses a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
