The Four Spent the Day Together features characters chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into aggression. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this seems a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. But then it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
The writer was originally an creative who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style infused into the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she states that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader fond of polished prose of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.
As someone who reads who favors crafted language of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the pleasure audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she states that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the victim with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
