The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with characters pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. However it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
The writer was originally an creative who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It makes sense that she now wants to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a moment when she asserts that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing three generations – none able to break free from their histories. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader attracted to honed writing of the kind Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.
Being a reader drawn to honed writing of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
