The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with characters chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this seems a different type of work – observational, truly literary. But then it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
The writer began as an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a time when she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – each trapped by their backgrounds. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader fond of refined literature of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As a reader drawn to crafted language of the kind that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for trivial aspects, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the referenced day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his friends. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, mooching around getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
