The Four Spent the Day Together features characters chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
The writer started out as an creative who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a renegade artist who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature redundant.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their backgrounds. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to refined literature of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.
As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the style that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the hostility and dread that powers an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much 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 United States that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the victim with the killer and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
