The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists seeking clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, since this presents as a new kind of book – observational, authentically narrative. However it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
The writer started out as an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming personal female narrative from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the epistolary style imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she now wants to explore different types of content, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a time when she claims that current political era turns intimate literature redundant.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.
As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the unpolished style she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. In a moment she states that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her online critics 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 killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, mooching around getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
