The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, because this presents as a different type of work – observational, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Kraus was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to explore different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a locality largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.
Being a reader who appreciates crafted language of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" 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 hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works comes back in the second segment. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
