The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. At the same time, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this appears a novel form of writing – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
The writer started out as an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate 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 – all unable to escape their histories. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to polished prose of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the opening part.
As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society driven by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
