The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with characters chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into violence. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, since this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
The writer was originally an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she currently desires to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing obsolete.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. There is the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader fond of refined literature of the kind Kraus herself often avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the kind that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the murdered individual with the murderer and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what transpired when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing 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 gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
