The Four Spent the Day Together features characters pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, since this seems a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Kraus was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative 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 nonconformist creator who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader fond of honed writing of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.
Being a reader drawn to precise prose of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the hostility and dread that drives an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her online critics would not understand, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
