The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind addictions or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this seems a novel form of writing – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Kraus was originally an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering multiple eras – all unable to escape their histories. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the initial segment.
Being a reader who favors crafted language of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the pleasure audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
