The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists chasing after new beginnings, attempting to leave behind drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and approaches as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Kraus started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to try out different types of content, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a time when she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – none able to break free from their backgrounds. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to refined literature of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the initial segment.
As a reader drawn to crafted language of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world driven by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the deceased with the killer and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
