The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this seems a new kind of book – documentarian, truly literary. But then it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
The writer began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their histories. The book includes the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of refined literature of the sort the author herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.
Being a reader drawn to honed writing of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the pleasure audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works comes back in the central part. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed 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 could potentially understand something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the killer and his companions. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations 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 difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
