The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals seeking clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this appears a different type of work – observational, truly literary. But then it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and approaches as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
The writer began as an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the epistolary style brought to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to try out fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – each trapped by their backgrounds. The book includes the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader fond of honed writing of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.
Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the start of the story, helped by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the killer and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
