The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", making it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. And yet, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this seems a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be laden with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a time when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband a man named Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to refined literature of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the kind that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening segment. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the middle section. Catt is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
