The Four Spent the Day Together features characters pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the narrative. And yet, the author herself seems to be making her own fresh start, since this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
The writer was originally an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the power and directness that the letter form infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to honed writing of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.
As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the variety that Kraus often disregards, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels returns in the middle section. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
