The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this presents as a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be packed with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Kraus was originally an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the power and directness that the epistolary style infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.
As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books comes back in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment driven by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her online critics would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
