The Four Spent the Day Together features characters chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this seems a new kind of book – observational, authentically narrative. But then it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
Kraus began as an creative who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style infused into the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to explore different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader fond of polished prose of the kind Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening part.
Being a reader drawn to precise prose of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the container that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day experienced by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
