The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into violence. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this appears a different type of work – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
The writer was originally an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It makes sense that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success 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 directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to honed writing of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the opening part.
As someone who reads who favors crafted language of the variety that Kraus often disregards, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the referenced day experienced by the victim with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
